Thomas Hits Detroit Radio Censorship
Thomas Hits Detroit Radio Censorship Letter to Couzens Urges Law to Prevent Religious and Political Discrimination WASHINGTON. ??” Charging that Station WJR in Detroit in selling speaking...
...Socialists Summoned to Reading Meet Old Party Campaign Show...
...From this time forth, the militarists and not the pacifists are on the defensive...
...The Reading conference will not only be a rallying point for the years political campaign and planning but must mark the beginning of the construction of a powerful, disciplined and militant party organization that will be qualified to pioneer in working class leadership in the crucial years ahead...
...Constant' rebuffs by members of the leg.': slature when representatives of ;rade unions endeavored to obtain needed legislation is responsible for he decision to 3end a questionnaire o Rhode Island unions to ascer:ain whether they want a labor >arty...
...As I understand the present l aw or the Commission's interpretation of the present law...
...Harry E. Schreiber, County Sheriff...
...one of the most active Socialists in the county reported ' that members of the Republican j Party had offered him a bribe of $2,000 if he would run in the 21st Congressional district against Robert Crosser...
...Thomas and our organization (the Socialist Partyj agree not to enter into any direct controversy with any other organization or individual...
...Leon Rosser Land, in opening the discussion of the evening...
...But the labor voters reelectd Controller William W. Scott and Councilman Irving C Pearce and Iso put in Clyde R. May...
...John Ruhimaki, John G. Willert, State legislature...
...I.need hardly tell you that it is.not enough that we have the right to sue for slander or are protected by a provision against j obscene language...
...Whalen refused to see him or compare the two samples of printing...
...The net esult under the commission plan s to give the laborites three and he capitalists three voices in the ocal government There are practically no hairsising contests within the FarcerLabor party for state and ederal posts of importance in the irimary June 18, but a good showng Is considered important for its iffect on the hesitating voter in he fall elections...
...Joseph B. Matthews, secretary of the Fellowship of Reconsiliation, and Mrs...
...These workers' .raining course students came 'rom the following organizations: Carpenters' Union, Typographi:al Union, Workmen's Circle, Upjolsters' Union, Socialist Party, Furriers' Union, Young Circle League, Bricklayers' Union, Neckfvear Makers' Union, United Textile Workers, United Hatters' Union, Millinery Workers' Union, International Pocket Book Workers' Union, Iron and Bronze Workers' Union, Elevator Operators' Union, Structural Iron Workers, Auto Mechanics' Union, Dental Laboratory Workers, International Jewelry Workers' Union, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Brotherhood of Painters, Amalgamated Clothing Workers, Verband International Arbiter Ring of the Workmen's Circle, Friends of the German Republic, 5foung People's Socialist League...
...Of Pinchot's sincerity there can be little doubt: it is only his intelligence that stands condemned...
...But regardless of his liberality, the Party will put up a strong fight to get a Socialist in Congress from this district...
...Military training in American schools and colleges is creating an extra-curricular activity i n to which young people go for personal reasons," declared Tucker P. Smith, executive secretary of the Comnaittee on Militarism in Education...
...present representative, a Democrat...
...The Police Commission of New York," remarked LaGuardia, "has bought a gold brick...
...The Cadet Corps become social fraternities in which the boys and girls have personal contact with military men and military-minded civilian allies...
...Tie Vote on Labor Party...
...Noah Mandelkorn...
...While Pennsylvania Socialists quietly complete plans for the state conference of the party at Reading on May 31st, the loudsst and funniest political campaign ever staged by capitalism in its masquerade of Democracy draws to a close in the Keystone State...
...It is our obligation as pacifists to prove our mettle by waging ceaseless peace...
...Compelling Need To Place Fighting In Field By Arthur G. McDowell FTTSBURG, Pa...
...The radio is a public utility...
...The plan was to have Willert run in that district instead' of in one in which he lives so as to divide the votes that Crosser received at the last election and get a Republican in Congress Instead...
...Rep...
...This discussion was led by John Nevin Sayre and Galen E. Russell of the Youth section, Fellowship of Reconciliation...
...He said, "It is an insult to the Socialist Party...
...Charles Hochenbrauch, Representative of 21st District...
...Pacifists Urged To Conduct a "War on War" Devere Allen Urges Aggressive Campaign Against Violence ??” Three-day Conference Held NETCONG, New Jersey...
...The five are I. Axelrod, John Krebel, 3. Backerman, John Willert, and Noah Mandelkorn...
...The conference also went on record praising Senator Lynn J. Frazier for his resolution to amend the Constitution of the ; United States so as to abolish the army and navy...
...Station WJF...
...Throughout the commonwealth (so-called in mockery under such a system as ours) the rank and file of the membership of the Socialist Party are urged to put forth a real effort to be at Reading and take part...
...The militarists have called the pacifists timorous...
...Most thinking people, however, are chiefly aghast at the remarkable hybrid produced in the campaign of former Gov...
...Yet no responsible newspaper would have treated the Socialist Party as'did Station WJR, the so-called good will station...
...Let but our bungling and blind capitalist rulers etege such another "disarmament" conference as this last and we shall be well on our way toward the suicide of war wherein the dictatorship of that same bunch of bunglers will be established, absolute and roughshod...
...There is a great place for non-violent resistance...
...The speakers were Miss Katharine D. Blake of the Women's Internationa...
...Mrs...
...that the managing editor of this paper went to Whalen's house with the request that comparison be made between the letterhead of the Whalen documents and the product of the print shop...
...I am aware that this whole field is difficult and the last thing I want to do is to establish censorship in the air...
...Proof that the "red plot" documents given to the press in New York May 2 by Police Commissioner Whalen .and purporting to be letters from the Communist International office in Moscow to officials of the Amtorg Trading Corporation in New York, were fabricated on letterheads printed in New York, was given to the House on Monday, May 12, by Rep...
...John Haynes Holmes, chairman of the League...
...Pinchot standing for office on a platform made of liberal and labor reform planks supported un-ofBcially by an alliance with the arch-reactionary industrial master Grundy who was an important supporter of Pinchot's in the successful campaign of 1922...
...What will be the outcome of the juestion to be put before the local intone cannot be predicted but it s certain that there is much disss: isf a c t or- with the barren results of the old political policy it recent years...
...A ceaseless battle for peace rather than negative pacifism which confines itself to refusing to take part in wars was urged as the guiding principle of pacifism, in the three-day conference on "Militant Pacifism" held here last week-end...
...These sermons have since been published as delivered under the title 'Christ or the Red Serpent.' Father Coughlin's enterprise seems to be connected with raising funds for the tower of the Crucifix of Tolerance which he wants to build...
...la ipite of this treatment, the older lelegates urged that the union ict on the basis of the old slogan, 'Elect your friends and defeat four enemies...
...I think there ought to bej a specific clause in the law which would simplify the matter by specifically condemning such & discriminatory contract as the Socialists of Detroit were forced to sign...
...A bribe of J2,000 was refused and denounced at the membership convention of the Socialist Party of Cuyahoga County held last Monday evening in Cleveland...
...Other messages were received from Heywood Broun, Dr...
...Allen's address Saturday evening, Dr...
...There have been, however, certain justifications for the popular misconception of the pacifist...
...He told how "those who labor have it in their power to stop war...
...With that irresistibly laugh-provoking clown James Davis dressed as a friend and champion of labor the campaign would deserve honorable place in the annals of political farce on the basis of this single feature, if the added attraction of the oil and gas millionaire Phillips' one-legged race for governor on the Prohibition issue was not included...
...only the pacifists have courage," Miss Blake said...
...He pointed out that the rules committee had voted to recommend a resolution of investigation of Communist propaganda...
...When the red wave of war swept across Ireland in 1798 the Quakers were in the thick of the fighting, ministering to the wounded and sometimes braving execution rather than be informers...
...The Kellogg Peace Pact puts leading governments of the earth for the first time in history on the side of the pacifists," said Rev...
...we need also non-violent, hatsleas attack...
...The result is a set of unconscious attitudes, prejudices, and personal attachments which play quite as important a part in the future thinking and acting of these students as any deliberate beliefs which they may learn or be taught in the experience...
...Jessie Wallace Hughan, secretary of the War Resisters' League, said: "A negative platform is just what a great movement can and should be built upon...
...Propose $2,000 Bribe To Socialist Offer to Willert Is Exposed at Socialist Convention ??” Full Ticket Is Named S r a New LeaSer Cerreesaaaeat) CLEVELAND...
...Noah Mandelkorn, County Commissioner...
...As it failed of a majority, it was then decided to Send the questionnaire...
...Cleveland G.O.P...
...Our remonstrance to Mr...
...The trouble here of course is that these pacifists do not see that there are more kinds of struggle than war...
...Never in the past was all pacifism so negative and useless...
...We must organize, build, think, in order that the masses of the humble may not again play a merely pathetic part in a crisis of human affairs...
...Were Printed in New New York City WASHINGTON (FP...
...Thomas' letter said...
...Charging that Station WJR in Detroit in selling speaking time to the Socialist Party insisted on a ewntract which barred him from replying to charges made against the Socialist Party by the Catholic Church...
...Sabbath of Illinois, a member of the rules committee, asked that his committee also be given a copy of the letter heads and the Whalen documents...
...I am proud to belong to the aati - militarist movement, the No mora War movement, the War Real stance movement, with the tremendous negative principle that all these terms Imply...
...indeed, permit me to speak on the usual financial terms' one Sunday afternoon, but it forced the Socialist representative in Detroit...
...From time to time I have been in receipt of complaints of attacks similar to Father Coughlin's where -no opportunity has been allowed by radio companies for reply...
...to accept as a condition of getting the use of the station an extraordinary provision in which 'Mr...
...There have been those, and we still have them with us, whose motto is that of waitful watching...
...Devere Allen, editor of The World Tomorrow, sounded this keynote on the second day of the conference, which was organized by the War Resisters' League...
...Rand School to Celebrate End Of 24th Year Closing Exercises Will Be Held Saturday, May . 24th, in the Debs Auditorium The Rand School announces the ' :elebration of the close of the 24th ' leason of its activities to be held 3aturday, May 24, at 8 p. m. in . he Debs Auditorium, at 7 East .5th street...
...The establishment of a monthly Party bulletin, the employment and use of a permanent state organizer, the closing of our ranks among the language federations through young peoples work, these are only a few of the immediate and pressing objectives...
...High 3pots of the conference included a cablegram sent by the conference to the British Premier, which read: "Sharing your desire for justice and the peace of the world, we implore you to exert your great Influence for the release of Gandhi as the first step in the ! friendly adjustment of the crisis in India...
...War has been theoretically outlawed as a method for settling disputes...
...The conference was opened Friday evening, with a message from Rev...
...They had nothing lew to offer in support of th?» >ld policy and they could not deny that the labor organizations of the state were treated as aliens at the State Capitol...
...vGold Brick" Bought Amtorg, said LaGuardia to the House, is a New York corporation which does $120,000,000 to $150.000,000 of business with the Soviet Union in a year...
...Norman Thomas, ^h?«irman of the public affairs committee of the party, has written U. S. Senator James Couzens urging the enactment of legislation which would condemn "such a discriminatory contract as the Socialists of Detroit were forced to sign...
...At the recent convention of the State Federation of Labor where the motion to send the questionnaire was carried, another important proposal was considered...
...my only recourse would be to prove that Station: WJR has not served the public interest because of this discrimination...
...I think there ought to be a way without establishing censorship...
...LET US REMEMBER, we may well be working Under the penalty of approaching a crisis unprepared...
...The individual must have nothing to do henceforth under any conditions with the momentous crime of war," Holmes wrote...
...It is time for them to realize that they are the fearful ones...
...From this diversion, although, as in Pinchot's case, sometimes pathetic spectacle the Pennsylvania Socialist Party is called upon to turn its face toward the May 31st conference of the general Party membership and to the difficult and challenging tasks that lay beyond...
...The third day opened with a discussion of cooperation of pacifist organisations in their work in the United States...
...The second day of the conference opened with a discussion of military training in high schools and colleges...
...Unions Questionnaire Sent Out To Locals When Stale, mate Is Reached at Federation Convention PROVIDENCE, R. I...
...This proposal received exactly half of the votes of the delegates...
...For the first time the school is : ssuing certificates to students who ' lave satisfactorily completed the wo-year evening course...
...I am convinced that the negative principle is not only the most powerful and the most psychologically sound, but also the moat wisely conservative principle that can animate a great popular cause...
...Moses Benjamin, pounty Prosecutor...
...LaGuardia...
...The matter is more serious, I think, than the attitude of one station...
...For this laudable purpose, over a good will station, he has indulged in serious misrepresentation of the nature of Socialism and the Socialist Party and hopeless confusion of it with Communism...
...The vast majority of those whose lives are snuffed out in battles and in other forms of violence that have their origin in war are men who are conscripted from the factories and workshops...
...It is under far greater obligation than a mag; azine or newspaper to permit reply to attacks that may be made upon individuals or organizations because it enjoys the use by pubhe license of wave lengths that cannot be privately owned...
...Hence, I raise the question with you both as regards I the adequacy of the present l aw and the possibility of more adequate protection for individuals and organizations thus misrepresented over the radio...
...chairman of the convention, aptly voiced the sentiment of the comrades...
...He has attacked me by name," Mr...
...Declaring that "pacifism today is neither evasion of the struggle for social justice nor a withdrawal from world problems," Mr...
...Allen, chairman of the Pacifist Action Committee, pointed to the increasing tendency among pacifists to regard their task as that of promoting social progress by non-violent means...
...specifically we agree to make no reply to Father Coughlin or the Catholic Church.' This contract was signed by John F. Patt for the station...
...It is rather about Station WJR which refused me an opportunity to reply to these attacks...
...one who will not follow the so-called progressives but one who will lead in introducing social legislation in favor of the working class...
...The afternoon session was devoted to a discussion of the War Resisters' International...
...Rebecca Yellen, County Treasurer...
...War is a common enemy of mankind and unless the nations of the earth live up to the ideals of the Kellogg Peace Pact civilization and possibly humanity i3 doomed...
...We must keep this in mind when we consider anti-war tactics...
...The school invites all its friends in the labor movement to participate in the celebration which will include a few short addresses by students and faculty, and by Paul Porter, field secretary of the League for Industrial Democracy, to be followed by an entertainment, dancing and refreshments...
...The following members were elected to represent the Party on the ballot in the fall election: Max Epstein, M. Weintraub, Joseph Jouch, state senators...
...Among many the pacifist is still regarded as one who abhors the clash and contest of right with wrong, and who retires to an ivory tower in order to save hi3 soul from evil...
...He read a statement from the printer in New York, from whom a stranger had ordered this Russianlanguage job, and he 1 demanded that Whalen be brought back before the House immigration committee, where on May 9 Whalen had refused to discuss the genuineness of the papers...
...Thomas Hits Detroit Radio Censorship Letter to Couzens Urges Law to Prevent Religious and Political Discrimination WASHINGTON...
...John Howland Lathrop, Clarence Senior, executive secretary of the Socialist Party, and others...
...It did...
...He produced letterheads printed in a small shop on East Tenth Street, New York City, some four and a half months ago, and showed that the minor defects in the printing were identical, under the miscroscope, with those on the letterheads of the Whalen documents...
...Patt had no result...
...League for Peace and Freedom, Devere Allen, chairman of the Pacifist Action Committee and vice chairman of the War Resisters' League...
...A committee of five was also elected to fill vacancies...
...By R.I...
...which calls itself the 'good will' station, on Sundays from January 12 to March 9 inclusive broadcasted a series of sermons by the Rev...
...The school announces that it has had L34 students on free scholarships his year in the workers' training ;ourse, the most important phase >f its activities...
...Jenkins of Ohio, in the same immigration committee, said he w a 3 sure the committee would make the examination suggested by LaGuardia...
...Charles E. Coughlin under the auspices of the Radio League of the Little Flower...
...Enlightened self-interest should lead them to see that they are the losers in all wars, and in a more real sense than is usually conveyed in the statement that there are no victors in any war...
...Whalen"Red" Letters Shown To Be Forged La G u a r d i a Reveals "Russian Documents...
...Paul Labor Elects Three Conncihnen an- i IN ST...
...Ida Palmer of the Women's Peace Union...
...The Republican Party is out to "get" Congressman Crosser because he is one of a few independent representatives...
...The Socialist Party never has nor ever will help to get a candidate belonging to one of the two old parties into office...
...We were insulted at the Stats House," said the president of the 3tate Federation of Labor...
...When Francis Deak led Hungary in a pacifist revolt and won constitutional liberty in the last century, he was grappling with tyranny instead of fleeing from it The number of authenticated cases in history where pacifist methods have won victories for human freedom are more numerous than generally realized...
...PAUL ??” (FP) ??” The city lection was a disappointment to abor optimists because their canlidate for mayor, James M. nancy, lost oat by about 10,000 -otes out -of about 67,000 votes ast...
...The Whalen documents were issued to prove that Amtorg was a center of Communist propaganda in this country- In the name of fair play he demanded that the immigration committee which had given prominence to Whalen's charges should now examine the evidence that the charges were based on forged papers...
...However, the vote on the defeated proposal indicates how widespread is dissatisfaction with the political action that has been followed by the Rhode Island unions for so many years...
...International Electrical Workers' Union, Suit Case and Bag Makers' Union...
...There have b**^ plenty of pacifists who have compromised when war finally came and joined lamely in this fight...
...Jablonower told of the attitude of American labor and the Socialists toward war and preparation for war...
...John G. Willert...
...Jennie L Harvey, County Auditor...
...Anton Brezino, Joseph Martinek...
...This was a resolution to hold a state meeting of labor representatives is August to consider plans for organizing a labor party...
...This he refused to do...
...Nor has my correspondence with the Radio Commission given me any clear indication whether or not the Commission has the power under the present law to deal with such gross discrimination as thi3 contract implied...
...This popularized playing soldier is a much more dangerous form of militarism than many realistic preparations for war...
...Yet Whalen proceeded to Washington later to speak in secret session to the House committee, which expected him to tell why he thought his documents were authentic...
...LaGuardia explained that a reporter for a New York tabloid newspaper had discovered the printer...
...Pa...
...Following Mr...
...Free tickets can be obtained by communicating with the office of the Rand School, 7 East 15th street...
...Opposes Censorship "But this letter is not about Father Coughlin with whom I am in correspondence which may perhaps have satisfactory results...
...Charles C. Sprague, County clerk...
...At the Sunday afternoon session, "Labor Socialism and War Resistance" was the subject of the discussion, led by Joseph Jablonower, vice president of the Teachers Union...
...they are ready to speak for pacifism and suffer for it in wartime, but they can see no reason for doing anything to make it vital now...
...Robert Wuffle...
...Edna Hastings, Louis Kunz...
...Chairman Snell of the rules committee looked at LaGuard i a s evidence and later said that his report of the inquiry resolution would be delayed...
Vol. 10 • May 1930 • No. 15
