NEWS NOTES AND COMMENTS
Follette, Belle Case La
News Notes and Comments By BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE ANITA WHITNEY ANITA WHITNEY of Oakland, California, is well known throughout the country as an ardent suffrage and welfare worker. Her fighting...
...For this reason the German Government should urge Russia to join the League of Nations and participate in the next disarmament conference, whereby the European States would be deprived of their many pretexts for maintaining armies and navies...
...Abolition of war must come as a mass movement, from widespread, deep conviction that slaughter of men is not necessary to settlement of disputes between Mattone any more than be aawtef for the setttement of quarrets between individ nals...
...And yet we do not know just when, nor how soon, that change might take place...
...second, they have a high regard for religious realities...
...The reasons assigned by Governor Young establish a precedent of great value and afford the basis for the repeal of the California criminal syndicalism law and for the repeal of such laws in other states where they remain on the Statute books—the result of the war hysteria and fanaticism...
...She became temporarily connected with the Communist Labor Party and took part in a meeting where she helped to formulate a resolution that if adopted would have committed the organization to a policy of political reform by the use of the ballot...
...Agreements between separate nations like those adopted by the Scandinavian countries mutually to abolish war are feasible and tend to secure practical results in the way of disarmament...
...The proposal comes at an opportune time...
...OUTLAWRY OF WAR NEWSPAPERS bring the glad tidings that Mr...
...At one time it was the Navy's proud boast that it largely maintained the steel industry in America...
...At another convention, hotelkeepers had expressed opposition to the entertainment of the Negro student delegates...
...in principle, capital punishment for default of payment.' And who can estimate the cost in life and money...
...She might have led a selfish life of leisure, but she chose to devote her time and her fortune to the service of mankind...
...After eight years legal battle the "syndicalism act" was declared by the United States Supreme Court to have no repugnancy "to either the due process or equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment on any of the grounds" upon which its validity had been challenged...
...Governor Young of California has found a fortunate solution of the dilemma—he decided the case on grounds that Miss Whitney and a host of friends throughout the country must accept and rejoice over...
...All these ships are built of steel...
...A treaty between France and the United States once achieved, others would follow...
...But this great armada used against Japan, England, France, Germany, Italy or Russia would only be a laughing stock to their fighting men...
...and third, they are happily free from racial prejudices...
...The Militarists are shocked at the idea and are broadcasting the suspicion that it is a French move to get out of paying the debt France owes us...
...A specific agreement between France and the United States to outlaw war whose contents become a matter of common knowledge to the citizens of two continents is a very different proposition from oldtime diplomatic negotiations hidden away in state archives...
...A solemn agreement without reservations between two great nations like France and the United States never under any circumstances to resort to war, published throughout the world, would have immense effect in the enlightenment jof mankind and in creating a public opinion that could not readily be stampeded by the war makers...
...to provide cruisers, destroyers, submarines, supply vessels and aircraft to protect it...
...DISARMAMENT GHE "NATION," for whose opinion I have very high regard, says of the United States' proposals at the tripartite naval conference which began its sessions at Geneva on June 20th, "good but timid...
...None of the members of the League of Nations, he charged, was living up to the requirements of Article VIII of the Covenant, providing that they apprise the League and Council of the status of their armaments...
...To begin with, each battleship costs more than $50,000,000 to build and equip and $50,000,000 more is necessary...
...but today, with the use of structural steel for buildings, its use in industry and the arts, no Government agency is required to indirectly subsidize this great and necessary business, "Floating on the water, we have something like one-fiftieth of our total national wealth, which, as far as international war with any other great nations is concerned, is practically useless, because their submarines and aircraft would quickly put an end to it...
...One of the chief barriers to disarmament," he said, "is the unfounded fear of Russia...
...The effort was futile, but nevertheless disagreeable...
...It takes time to get the momentum and power back of war transmuted into a force to outlaw it...
...Miss Whitney abhors sympathy...
...The text of the treaty has not been made public, but it is understood to be very simply worded without high sounding phrases or diplomatic* subterfuge—• just a plain, straightforward, honest agreement that there shall be no more war between United States and France...
...He made this observation after attending a Student Conference at Milwaukee...
...Among the resolutions adopted almost unanimously was one relating to race: "I am willing to give to the members of every race the same opportunities that I have...
...M. Briand made the proposal in April, but it has been slow getting into the channels of publicity and its significance has been hard to grasp...
...What distinguished the Milwaukee conference from previous ones was apparent absence of racial prejudice—Whites, Negros, Indians, foreigners took part in the program, shared in all the entertainments and activities on the basi3 of fellowship and equality...
...Militarists who say the treaty would amount to nothing and would be broken as easily as made do not reckon with the effect of such a treaty on public sentiment...
...This decision meant that the sentence by the trial court of Miss Whitney to from one to fourteen years in San Quentin Prison must stand...
...Each time a battleship is bu»K it means that the people are expending $100,000,000 in its construction...
...When only a few of the white students protested these arrangements the Negro students left the meeting...
...Among the reasons given by Governor Young, as stated in the press, are: "Because I do not believe that under ordinary circumstances this case would ever have been brought to trial...
...These steps toward outlawry may not accomplish as much as we hope, they may disappoint us, but they are in the right direction...
...The Crisis" reporter concludes: "We are indebted to the Christian Student Movement through the Milwaukee Student Conference for the real way in which students in America have come to face Race Relations...
...Already It is reported that Baron Saito, Japan's statement and sage, is anxious to enter into negotiations for outlawry of war between Japan and the United States...
...There was no discrimination at the hotels nor in the private homes...
...A COSTLY ARMAMENT GENERAL William E. Mitchell, "formerly commanding air forces A. E. F. and director of military aeronautics, U. S. Army," in a communication to the "Washington Post" has this to say of our obsolete battleships: "Receatly the President reviewed the United States fleet in Hampton Roadie amid great booming of cannon and taking of photographs...
...This spirit pervaded the city as well as the convention hall...
...The twelve battleships in this fleet, with their auxiliaries, represented about $1,200,000,000 of the people's money, floating on Chesapeake Bay when the President reviewed them...
...She had refused to ask for pardon because it carried the implication of forgiveness for a crime which she had not committed...
...MILWAUKEE STUDENT CONFERENCE AS REPORTED in "The Crisis," a Negro college student said "Milwaukee was a milestone that points the way to greater achievements...
...Because of her membership in the party, Miss Whitney was arrested and convicted under the California criminal syndicalism act...
...We have never, shared that viewpoint and can cite the remarkable decrease in the familiar campaign* to stir up naval rivalry and fear between the United States and Japan as proof that the Washington Conference did bestow far-reaching benefits upon the world...
...Because I feel that the criminal syndicalism act was primarily intended to apply to organizations actually known as advocates of violence, terrorism, or sabotage, rather than to such organizations as a Communist Labor Party...
...As reported in the "New York Times," Count Von Bernstorff, former Ambassador in Washington to the United State3, recently made a strong plea in the Reichstag for disarmament...
...At one of the first national conventions of this kind, Negro delegates had been told to "enter the back-door of the Convention hall" and to occupy "special seats...
...Because the judges who have been connected with the case as well as the authors and some of the strongest advocates of the law under which Miss Whitney was convicted unite in urging that a pardon be granted...
...but little do the peo-pie realize what a tremendous expenditure of money this useless show costs them...
...The Churchman" said of this Milwaukee Conference: "Of three things we may be sure—first, that the more forward-looking, of the undergraduate body of our American colleges have a passion for social justice...
...This had broken down under the protests of the leaders of the convention, but it had been an unpleasant experience...
...Because the abnormal conditions attending the trial go a long way toward explaining the verdict of the jury...
...On the principle that even a quarter of a loaf is better than no bread, we shall be thankful even if the American proposals alone are adopted...
...For use against the helpless Chinese, the Filipinos, the Nicaraguans, Mexicans, Cubans or Haitians these ships are of some use because these nations have no air forces to sink them and no submarines to contest their way...
...What a terrible thought that we should go to war to collect debts due us...
...Herrick, U. S. Ambassador to France, is on his way home fetching along, with a shipload of Lindbergh good will, a specific proposal, drafted by M. Briand, for the perpetual outlawry of war between France and the United States...
...Her fighting spirit is more dramatic because of her intellectual and social endowment...
...We trust that public sentiment in America which seeks the limitation or the abolition of armaments will at once make itself felt and ask of our delegates and of President Coolidge who directs them that we go beyond our proposals and abolish the battleship, the submarine, the torpedo, and even the naval airplanes, The churches must now be heard if they desire worthwhile results at Geneva...
...and protection...
...Except for the war makers, I believe the Briand proposal when its significance is comprehended will have the enthusiastic and determined support of the people of the United States...
...Many of our American radicals and liberals felt that the Washington Conference was a fraud and accomplished nothing but limiting the number of obsolete battleships...
...It has been demonstrated that to get all the nations to agree to disarm or to abolish war at one time is impossible...
...Miss Whitney is by nature and on principle opposed to violence...
...Again when a student convention had been held in one of the large cities, the KIu Klux Klan had tried to force "Jim Crow" arrangements at the meeting...
Vol. 19 • July 1927 • No. 7
