TIMELY TOPICS
THOMAS, NORMAN
By Norman Thomas TIMELY TOPICS Lynch Law LYNCH law has been witting same new and terrible chapters In America, tn California a snob recruited largely from fpsskeatiss, led by aa eighteen...
...Each division has a Guide and an assistant and a name...
...No foreign nation, not even Germany in its treatment of Jews, can quite equal our record of legal and illegal violence in the name of race and class prejudice or of mob passion...
...Everything has been stolen from them...
...They had to...
...Some 10 aids, boys and girls who have already passed through all the Falcon stages, and aome Guides from 16 to 30 years old also help with the group...
...Governor Ritchie's order cooled...
...But any Socialist who wants to go beyond him or who thinks that he is, in our modern phrase, "too right wing" will be better able to do so if he will master Comrade Page's facts and arguments...
...Of less than seven million inhabitants, they have 20,000 Red Falcons, sixty to seventy thousand Nest Falcons, altogether about a hundred thousand Children's Friends...
...There also they have a large Falcon group, because Arbon is governed by Socialists...
...They are so nearly toothless, so lacking even in false teeth...
...While I write this letter, you are very close to me...
...Morrow...
...Our group has 60 Fal-tons, 35 boys and 25 girls, which is very much, as our village has only 6,000 inhabitants...
...JRIKNDSHIP, Dear Brothers * and Sisters...
...Books for Workers IT would be a fine thing if Socialist locals and la-* bor unions would build up libraries, perhaps circulating libraries, which could go from local to local or union hall to union hall...
...The first week they found this sum in their envelopes, two of them, and only two, had the nerve to protest That week they were raised to the code level...
...are publishing some valuable pamphlets...
...One of the international camps was near Paris, where German and French Falcons participated...
...I think Comrade Page underestimates the disintegration of capitalism and therefore does not give the impression at urgency which the times demand...
...Socialist Solons Move for Real Relief (By n New Lradrr Correspondent) LJARRISBURG, Pa.-Spured by ** the determination of the old political gangs in Harrisburg to do nothing of social value in the present legislative session, Reading's Socialist lawmakers, in a resolution presented by Darlington Hoopes, demanded that chairmen of committees holding important bills be directed to report their fadings to the House not later tbiin Wednesday, December <i...
...Chiseling WHEREVER I go I get some new story to prove the universality of chiseling under the codes...
...has no blouse, but a blue shirt...
...The more we struggle and fight, the "ooner it will come...
...They owned many Children's Houses...
...There may be backsliders in the Socialist movement, but that will not harm us, for the time will come when Socialism will prevail...
...Then, if you want to know what a friend of the New Deal thinks it's all about, Ernest Lindley has written a very interesting book called, "The Roosevelt Revolution" (Viking Press...
...And such a splendid movement...
...They will know that it is an important problem, but one that can never be settled apart from settling the general property and profit system under which we operate...
...Zurich, the Jgrgest city in Switzerland witna quarter of a million people, has the largest group, with 20 Red Falcon groups...
...Perhaps he was an exception, but I am not so sure as things are now going...
...There were also smaller camps in the cities that could not participate...
...Socialists who read and understand that book will have a grasp on the money problem that neither Al Smith nor Father Coughlin have...
...If they had complained it would have been to a board in that district entirely dominated by the Chamber of Commerce...
...I don't pretend these are all the worthwhile books, but they are some which I want to call to the attention of my comrades...
...We also have young Falcons, children from eight to twelve years of age, and Nest Falcons, children from four to eight years old...
...The Falcon uniform is a blue blouse with a red tie...
...Almost a million children were organized in the Kinderfreunde organizations...
...When I am sixteen, six months from now, I will join the Socialist Working Class Youth...
...The present outlook Is that the Legislature will adjourn without doing anything of real value for the people of Pennsylvania," Hoopes declared...
...Handclasp from Swiss Youth To the Youth of America The following letter, written by a Red Falcon of a small Swiss town to the New York Falcons, gives a vivid picture of the Socialist youth movement abroad...
...Whether this time be near or far, we do not know...
...Yet with this record spread before the world we wonder that Britain and Japan do not regard our sudden interest in first building up our navy to treaty level, and then in increasing our ratio, as purely defensive acts a3 a lover of peace...
...This is a matter which concerns not one group of workers but the whole body...
...In the summer, several groups together have a camp...
...Wilson, would provide relief pensions of 91 per day to needy persons over 60 years of age...
...I have heard that you would like to correspond with Falcon groups in Europe...
...A friend of mine heard a manufacturer on the train boast the other day that wages under the code were costing him less than before...
...By Norman Thomas TIMELY TOPICS Lynch Law LYNCH law has been witting same new and terrible chapters In America, tn California a snob recruited largely from fpsskeatiss, led by aa eighteen -yeai^esi boy, borrlsfarArches two^roeri^aJi.f them unquestionably was guilty, but there seems to be soma ansbtion of the sanity of the other...
...The wording of this bill will enable it to avoid constitutional opposition, Mrs...
...How do you stand in America ? How many members have you in the Falcons, how are you organized ? Inform us on these questions...
...Repeal and Lawlessness S\NE of the most dangerously superficial bits of optimism about American lawlessness is the professed faith of some of the enthusiasts over the repeal of prohibition that now, that an unpopular and unenforceable amendment has been repealed, the American people will settle down to more law-abiding ways...
...At, the same time, Representative Lilith Wilson renewed her fight for a constitutional amendment which will enable future legislative bodies to enact old age pension laws without the danger of having such laws killed by verdicts of "unconstitutional...
...If that position is maintained, the codes will inevitably become straitjackets...
...Thus in almost every European country we have Children's Friends' groups, all larger than in Switzerland...
...The A. F. of L. should act...
...For the Red Falcons of Romanshorn, E. Ratschiller...
...The day will yet come when we Socialists will rise in the entire world, not with the force of weapons, but rather with spiritual strength...
...Against all this, of course, there is protest...
...If there is any justice or semblance of justice in American judicial proceedings, the conviction of Patterson and Norris will be immediately overruled if for no other reason than on the basis of the judge's charge to the jury...
...It is wonderful to work for Socialism, to struggle against everything that is unjust in the world...
...Wilson believes...
...The contagion of this sadistic terror spread...
...Again, in the usually peaceful east shore of Maryland a mob fought with troops sent by Governor Ritchie to arrest lynching suspects that local authorities had refused to touch...
...Finally, let me recommend a remarkable proletarian novel, "Karl and tho 20th Century" by Rudolph Brunngraber (Wm...
...The Red Falcon movement in Switzerland is still very young, only five or six yenrs old...
...One hardly believes that a large ocean lies between us...
...Incidentally, the John Day Company has just published a tremendously valuable little book by our friend, Fred Henderson, entitled, "Foundations for the World's New Age of Plenty...
...We wonder sometimes that our protests against Hitlerism have no more effect And we even dare to boast that there is something in America that makes us immune to Fascism...
...But lawlessness in America was born long before prohibition and it will live long afterwards...
...The Socialist Party and the L.I.D...
...Of Course, of such questions mobs are the best judge...
...Most of these helpers are members of the Socialist Working Class Youth (S.A.J...
...This city is also run by Socialists...
...They are being reduced to a hypocrisy worse than the hypocrisy of prohibition...
...Silk manufacturers sabotaged the Labor Board's decision interpreting the code for weeks on end in the hope that hunger and cold would reduce workers to submission...
...The Austrians have a wonderful organization...
...He won't shake anybody's faith in Socialism, but he does give interesting information and point of view...
...They didn't succeed because of the strength of the workers themselves...
...Judge and jury in Alabama simply represented the hideous race prejudice of the community...
...The Socialist Working Class Youth are young workers from the ages of sixteen to twenty...
...Twenty-nine out of thirty-six European countries took part in these international camps...
...In Maine the other day I heard the latest story from some shoe workers in open shop towns without union protection...
...They are parents, comrades of the Socialist Party, and sympathizers of the movement...
...This act was applauded by Governor Rolph of California, himself a chief actor in the continued lynching of Tom Mooney...
...Every month they give a small donation, and with this money we help poor Falcons to go on our outings, and buy materials, tents, and other equipment...
...Heio is a call in the Swiss dialect...
...Missouri was next with a lynching...
...Mrs, Wilson expressed similar views and expressed the belief that an effort was being made to adjourn the present legislative session on or before December 14...
...They knuckled under...
...of which there is also a group in Romanshorn...
...and what importance it had...
...Another hill, presented in the opening weekNof the present session by Mrs...
...Since last November we have a Swiss Falcon newspaper, Heio...
...But there is no sign that California will even consider impeaching that arrant law-breaker and inciter to riot, Governor Rolph...
...A gymnasium teacher, a fine man, is our leader...
...One of the largest Falcon movements is now suppressed, namely, the German Falcons...
...In the name of the Red Hal eons of Ro-manshorn, o f the Young Falcons and of the Nest Falcons, 1 write you this first letter...
...Last year there were five international European camps, at See kamp, Namedy, AJlegau, Lubecher Bucht, and Keutsach...
...The next week it was the old story over again—18 in the envelopes...
...I live about one hour's distance from the German boundary...
...John Day, a private publisher, deserves thanks for his excellent service...
...Eight men, known to my informant, lining cutters, were working 46 hours a weak...
...Division I is called Peace, II Forwards, III Freedom, and IV Wanderers...
...In almost «1I of the large cities we have big groups...
...A threefold Friendship to you all...
...It is true enough that unenforced prohibition did breed an extension of lawlessness and of hypocrisy...
...They got $8 or $9 a week...
...Tats time when they protested they were told that they would be paid the code minimum, but they would then lose their jobs...
...The Socialist Working Class Youth also has its own paper, "Red Youth...
...What a shame...
...Repeal has its decided merits, but it will no more stamp out lawlessness than it will bring prosperity...
...There is no town and no industry which does not repeat this story...
...If I knew English better 1 would write you in English, but that cannot be done as yet...
...The S.A.J...
...Alabama was next in line, this time with a legal lynching, for that is all the latest Scottsboro trials have been...
...In 42 places we have Red Falcon groups, 10 new places being added last year...
...The one answer, of course, is effective unionism, and in the shoe industry, to which I have already referred, the approaching amalgamation of the independent unions is one of the most encouraging signs on the labor field...
...The next day the court released the men the troops had arrested...
...Some of the readers of this column doubtless heard B. Charney Vladeck's fine review of the book over WEVD...
...The second largest city, Basle, also a Socialist city, has 3 Red Falcon groups...
...Central Strike PACH day that passes without aggressive action *-* by labor to form central strategy for strikes and for machinery for advice and legal action makes the danger of the defeat of labor by an ultimate Fascism the greater...
...About an hour's ride from the lake lies the beautiful little city of Arbon...
...It now looks as though the game is to jam through all the wanted liquor legislation and the soldiers' bonus bill and to make a few appropriations and then to quit without attacking the problems which affect workers and unemployed...
...Labor ought to fight in the courts, labor ought to storm the Administration and Congress, to defeat the growing tendency of employers' organizations, led by the National Electrical Manufacturers' Association, to hold that the closed shop is illegal under the codes...
...We youths are here to continue what our fathers have accomplished...
...Another of the recent worthwhile books is "Individualism and Socialism" by Kirby Page (Farrar & Rinehart), a perfect mine of authentic information invaluable for Socialist speakers and Socialist students...
...It will not even solve the liquor problem, as the troubles that states are now having in wrestling with that problem abundantly prove...
...I am Swiss, and here English is not yet widely spoken...
...Our group is divided into four divisions, two of girls and two of boys...
...We know enough, but we must keep quiet...
...Lindley is for the revolution though he doesn't seem to be quits sure that it is a revolution...
...that no longer can they scare anyone...
...Two years ago there was a wonderful camp at Thuncrsec, where four to five thousand Falcons were gathered...
...In the Red Falcons we have boys and girls from the ages of twelve to sixteen...
...Each Falcon group has honorary members...
Vol. 16 • December 1933 • No. 24
