Puerto Ricans In Civic Association Blame Officials

For six months police detectives, acting on the urging of members of the Puerto Rican Civic Association, have been trying to find out what happened to almost $19,000 which officers said the association had.

To date they have not succeeded. "We know the money's missing," Capt. Leon Strauss told the RECORD, "and we've had investigators on it. We've still got them on it. But we haven't been able to get enough documentary evidence yet." The question arose last April 11, an association member told the RECORD, after the membership voted to pay $3,000 in bills outstanding, only to discover that there was only $500 in the organization's bank account.

Report Found False Only three days before, the member said, Treasurer Carmello Lopez had announced that there was $19,000 in the bank, so members took the matter to Territorial Treasurer William Brown.

According to a notarized report to the treasurer dated February 1951 and signed by Lopez, the $19,000 was in the bank. Only the bank didn't have it.

Mr. Brown turned the matter over to the C-C prosecutor who in turn, gave it to the police for further investigation. The difficulty in pushing the case is two-fold, authorities say. In the first place, the money was in a savings account and there are no checks or deposit slips or withdrawal transactions on record. Treasurer Lopez was empowered to draw money out.

Many Discrepancies Yet authorities feel the unbusiness like methods of the organization may not be entirely the fault of Mr. Lopez. The organization was founded in 1929, and there is little indication that its business affairs have been conducted in such a manner as to allow thorough checking.

In the second place, mere prosecution of Mr. Lopez or any other officer will not get the money back for the members. Authorities familiar with the case express the doubt, however, that the officers actually have anywhere like that much money. "I don't know," said one who has investigated the case, "whether it's dishonesty or just terribly bad management."

A number of authorities think other officers besides Lopez share in the responsibility.

Mr. Lopez, contacted by the RECORD, had one answer.

It was: "I have a lawyer, Arthur Trask."

Other officers of the club for the year the report was filed include: Agustin Montiho, president; Alberto Minvielle, first vice president; A. Belen, second vice president; Manuel C. Pagan, secretary; Peter Morales, secretary, and David Rodrigues, auditor.

Whatever became of the money, some members feel they have been victims of a cruel hoax.

"We are all poor men and we have paid our dues, $1.75 a month for years," said one, "in the expectation of a good burial. It is the only benefit. Now there is not enough money even for that, and we want to know what happened."

By Staff Writer

Dollars, or the safety of Honolulu lives and property?

That's the question behind the visit of a delegation to a congressional committee in Washington last week to get Coast Guard restrictions on dynamite unloading in Honolulu harbor lifted. Fighting for the right of companies to make dollars in a manner that has been illegal since 1917 were Delegate Joseph Farrington, Governor Oren E. Long, dynamite importers and construction men.

Standing fast on his decision to protect lives and properly in Honolulu was Rear Admiral L. W. Perkins, Commandant of the Coast. Guard here, who a few months ago began enforcing a rule that has actually been in effect on the Mainland since 1917 but in effect here only nominally and in "abeyance" for many years.

"Isn't it," the reporter asked a government expert, "a clear case of profits at the expense of safety in Honolulu?"

"Of course," said the expert, "but don't mention my name."

And what of the danger to Honolulu in the event of an explosion in the harbor?

Danger Wide

Another expert, standing in the Territorial building on King St., said: "If there should be an explosion. I wouldn't want to be in this building."

So, despite the play given the story in the dailies and the praise accorded the mission by an employer radio spokesman, men who know harbor hazards best were not pleased by the amazing announcement that the delegation had done its best to get the Coast Guard's "American Table of Distances" lifted from Honolulu harbor.

The announcement was amazing because only last May Delegate Farrington's Star-Bulletin boasted that it had won an award from the National Board of Fire Underwriters for exposing the very conditions in Honolulu's harbor that made the restrictions doubly important. Following the lead of the RECORD two months earlier, the Star Bulletin had reported that an explosion as big and as devastating as that at Texas City might be expected if present unloading practices were continued.

Although the Star-Bulletin did not point out, as the RECORD had, that the real hazard arises from the concentration of a million and a half barrels of gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene and diesel oil—the Coast Guard forthwith ordered that the unloading of nitrates at Honolulu piers cease. The Star Bulletin boasted that its stories had brought about the order. Mainland Safety Brought Here More recently, the Coast Guard enforced |a safety measure which has existed on the Mainland since 1917, and which regulates the amount of explosives that may be brought in by the degree of concentration (or possible disaster) there is in the port. Because of the congestion in Honolulu harbor of ships and the concentration of combustibles shoreside, the limit for dynamite cargoes here was set at 500 pounds.

Immediately construction firms

and those which deal in dynamite (notably Gray, Cheeley & Graham) began to protest and the climax was last week's appearance of Delegate Farrington, Governor Long, Donald H. Graham of both Gray, Cheeley & Graham and the Hawaiian Dredging Co.; Leroy C. Bush of the Honolulu Construction & Draying Co., and others. The group appeared before a merchant marine subcommittee of the House of Representatives, and Governor Long made the most extravagant statement reported back from Washington.

Alarmist Talk

Long said the application of an "American Table of Distances" to Hawaii's harbors has put Hawaii in a "desperate to critical" situation. Further, the United Press reported, he testified that the economy of the Territory is in danger of collapse if dynamite in much larger quantities is not allowed to be landed.

Mr. Graham, who sells dynamite to many construction companies here, said that without explosives, Hawaii would go "back to the grass shack era."

Congressmen Swayed

The congressmen, though one of them expressed concern for the people living close to the water here, were generally overwhelmed by the testimony, UP reported, to such a degree that most of them went along with the arguments of Long, the dynamite men and Farrington, and Chairman T. Millet Hand said:

"We have just got to do something. We cannot undermine the economy of the Territory:"

A check by the RECORD with the Coast Guard revealed that the danger to Hawaii's economy is considerably less frightening than the delegation of politicians and businessmen made it sound. There are several ways in which dynamite may be brought into the Territory, one of them already having been put in operation.

First, with the permission of the Navy, dynamite in large quantities may be unloaded at Westloch. Already the Navy is reported to have authorized a shipment of 250 tons, which will be landed at Westloch for the benefit of private companies. The Coast Guard will, nevertheless, supervise the unloading operation as it does with all but government ships.

Second, ships loaded to capacity may anchor outside the harbor and unload into lighters to loads up to 500 pounds each, which may then be landed at Honolulu piers and unloaded. This method is considered too expensive by shippers and dangerous for ship, longshoremen and crew when seas are running high.

Third, one of Hawaii's ports, Kahului, Maui, is open to loads of 4,000 pounds. -There is nothing but the expense that would keep dynamite importers from shipping to Kahului and reloading on island boats to the extent of 500 pounds for Honolulu, Hilo and other ports under Coast Guard restrictions.

So the "distress" of the construction companies would seem to be largely a distress of the pocketbook.

Even Westloch Brings Gripe This was evident in an earlier statement by a Gray, Cheeley & Graham spokesman who complained to the RECORD last summer that even the unloading at Westloch would cause higher hauling costs.

But Rear Admiral Perkins has indicated that he will stand firm on his decision to protect Honolulu lives and property by enforcing the "American Table of Distances," no matter what step the seekers for profit take, unless he is overruled by a superior officer. "The commandant is not changing his mind," a ' Coast Guard spokesman said.

When I attended Konowaena High School 20 years ago, a summer trip to Honolulu to work in the pineapple canneries was a great adventure to students.

Every summer I worked in the garage department of Hawaiian Pineapple Co., Ltd., where a mechanic gave me a start. Without this job I could not have completed high school, for my secondary education depended on my summer earnings. My eldest sister and brother-in-law gave me free board and lodging and I was thus able to take home to Kona practically all my pay.

At the garage I used to observe Manuel Palmer, the superintendent, who frequently worked at the drawing board or went out in the yard to supervise the surveying of the land. I became interested in civil engineering and about that time I picked that as my life's occupation.

But at 17, when I came out of high school, my family was deep in debt to a coffee company and to friends. College education was beyond our means. My elder brother, mother and I discussed my future and we came to agreement that once our debts were paid, I could attend university. This took six years.

I was fortunate in having a childhood friend then who was a student in Honolulu. He sent me books and encouraged and inspired me to read widely. Through his efforts I acquired the reading habit which deepened my curiosity about our country and our people.

Reading opened new vistas for me. I read late into the night by lamplight after toiling all day in the coffee field. I read, for instance, the two volumes of The American Tragedy three times. At first it was incomprehensible to me that such poverty, as described by Theodore Dreiser, could be possible among white families. In Kona, the white families were big ranchers and landlords and their children went to a private school. We never had contact with them.

The biography of Lincoln was inspiring, of Grant, informative, and of Harding, amusing and disgusting because of graft and corruption in his administration.

My friend must have read all the books he sent me. The impression they made upon him undoubtedly was different from that made upon me, for he was a son of wealth in our community. His father was a former manager of the coffee company. Our world outlook was different, even at so young an age.

The Kona public library was three miles from my home. I went there occasionally and borrowed books at random. There was no one to give me direction and no one to discuss what I read. In looking back, I find that the shelves of the one-room library contained mostly light fiction by writers like Zane Grey.

The Impact of Depression

Made a Deep Impression On Me

During the summer of 1931, the year of my graduation, I returned to the cannery in spite of the opposition of my family. They said I would be jobless in the city and would be dependent on my sister and brother-in-law. The depression had hit the pineapple industry and at the cannery we heard that mature pineapples were being destroyed or left unharvested. It seemed inconceivable to me that such a huge fruit factory could be stilled by outside conditions. I soon became unemployed and learned what depression was like.

At that time I wanted to be on my own, therefore I lived in an. Aala district hotel with a friend. Every morning I dressed neatly and visited store after store and office after office in looking for a job. In the afternoon, I wore soiled clothing and applied for yard work in upper class residential areas. Sometimes I found a few hours of work. My friend did no better than I. Naturally, there were times when we ate only once a day.

Depression Brought Fear For My Security

On many occasions I became afraid that the depression might crush me both physically and mentally. To idle my time away when I was not looking for a job, I visited pool halls. Life in the slum district was pretty rough and rugged. Because of my background, particularly the strong influence of mother, I did not become assimilated into that life, although I lived in the midst of it. If it were not for this I could have become an anti-social character. My reaction to the conditions was not bitterness and strong protest, but trying to find a way out of the plight by discussion and reasoning.

Depression was our deepest concern. I wanted to know when and how it would end. My friend, who was older than I, had been in California. He had worked in produce markets and on farms as a migratory laborer. Jobs are limited in Hawaii, he said, and as we walked the streets for jobs fruitlessly, he decided to leave for the West Coast.

He told me of the numerous opportunities in California. Japanese alien farmers there cannot own land, therefore, they would want to go into partnership, even in name only, with Nisei. They would list the farm under the citizens' names, get around the discriminatory law and reward the Nisei partners.

Some laws are made for certain people. That is why the rich spend money on lawmakers, he explained.

My Ancestry Barred Me From Government Job

Because I was in no condition to go along with him to California, my friend urged me to apply for Federal government positions. One day I applied for a Pearl Harbor apprentice job which was posted in the post office building. A lady asked me whether I was a Chinese and I replied: "American." Then she asked, what was my ancestry. I answered: "Japanese." She said she was sorry: I insisted I was a citizen but that made no difference.

When I reported back to my friend, he said indignantly: "You mean to tell me we don't have a white man's chance, even with the government?"

He then explained to me about discrimination against Orientals in California and of the Hearst "Yellow Peril" propaganda. He blamed the anti-Oriental attitude on the West Coast for the treatment I had just received. But he still wanted to go to California. I could not understand why he should go there.

"I'd rather starve than get kicked around," I said to him.

"We're not the only ones. The Mexicans, Jews and others get kicked around, too," he said.

This experience brought home sharply to me the cruel lesson of discrimination. When I discussed this matter with older people, some of them said the strained U. S.-Japanese relationship was responsible. My friend did not agree and at the hotel I listened to arguments. He said that Negroes, Jews, Mexicans and Filipinos did not have an ancestral country that had strained relations with the U. S., but they were discriminated against.

That year in Honolulu was packed full of practical experiences for me. After my friend left for the Mainland, a Singer machine salesman took me into his home and gave me board and lodging.

I Was Ignorant of Trade Unionism

I was licked by unemployment and I said so in a letter to mother. Then I went to live with my sister and brother-in-law. Shortly after, I learned that Honolulu Dairymen's was employing extras in the ice cream plant. I went there early every morning. Persistence finally won out and I was employed.

Pay day a few weeks later, however, was a great disappointment for my wage rate was far less than what I understood it was going to be. I had put in overtime till 11 p.m. on many days and expected a sizeable pay envelope. Another new employe felt just as I did. We talked to the timekeeper who gave us his figures.

At that time, Dairymen's was not organized. It was years later that the workers formed a union. As for myself, I had no knowledge of trade unions. The only manner of protest we two could think of was to quit our jobs. We did this after 4 p. m. when the foreman and the executives had gone home for the day. Because we did not work that night there was a shortage of popsicles and milk nickels the following day.

When we went for the balance of our pay the following morning, the manager told us emphatically: "Don't ever show your faces around here again!"

The ice cream plant workers and delivery truck drivers seemed afraid to talk to us that morning. Such was the fear of the bosses in those days. I felt that even if it were a depression year, the big company should pay better and provide better working conditions.

New Deal Was Yet To Come

All of us were not familiar with the strength of organized labor. The New Deal was yet to come and with it the struggle, of labor to bring about the atmosphere conducive to unionization programs.

From Honolulu I went to Pahoa, Puna, to work in a general merchandise store owned by one of my sisters and her husband. Pahoa is part of the Olaa Plantation Co. Early in the morning, long before sunrise, I saw men go to work, some of them leading mules that woke up the whole village by the racket they made.

Plantation Slum Was Like Aala District

In Pahoa, I first saw the depressing plantation housing conditions. I remember delivering groceries to dark, bare and dilapidated shacks, particularly in the Filipino camps. I remember Filipino laborers buying more eggs and energy-giving food during the harvesting season. During hoe-hana season, they economized on food. The pay then was very small.

The housing and sanitation I observed was no better than the slum conditions of the Aala district. This was my first introduction to the plantation slums which I was to campaign against years later through the Honolulu RECORD.

Because my brother-in-law played politics, I was able to get WPA employment on road construction for about five hours a day. My brother-in-law was a Democrat and it took courage then to organize a precinct in a place like Pahoa. I remember that his Democratic Party activities irritated the Pahoa manager of the sugar company.

Politics Meant Bread and Butter To Me

When there was no WPA money for projects in the Pahoa area, I worked on the road as county maintenance man. Solomon Hauanio was our foreman and he did the employing. I believe he was a Democrat, too, and for that reason he gave me a job in deference to my brother-in-law.

Politics was entirely a new thing to me. Because it meant bread and butter to me, I became interested in them. (To Be Continued)

Talk of the City Hall this week has been the series of vigorous Philippics with which reporter Ron Bennett of the Advertiser has assailed Chairman Herbert Kum of the C-C Civil Service Commission.

While none doubted Mr. Bennett's conviction in his crusade, apparently aimed at removing the civil service chairman, there were those who felt that his accusations boiled down eventually, to one—that Mr. Kum played politics with civil service and that he played better than his competitors.

Otherwise, some C-C personnel felt, the reporter was carrying the banner, wittingly or not, of department heads who have been gunning for Kum ever since 1949, when as chairman, he had participated in the exposure of the perjury of K. C. Warlord and played a leading role in pushing the Gallas Report on C-C personnel practices more than two years ago.

Department Heads Upset

Kum aroused the opposition of the department of public works by his activities in the Warford case, since that department had held Warford in high esteem and recommended him for one of its best positions. A number of department heads, notably Fred Ohrt of the board of water supply, opposed the Gallas Report because it recommended changes which they felt would "upset the delicate balance" upon which departmental morale is maintained.

Despite many protests and at least one heated hearing before the board of supervisors, nearly all Gallas' recommendations were adopted.

Questioning the chairman's political activity, Bennett accuses him of participating actively in the last campaign to elect Mayor Wilson.

Not even Mr. Hum's closest friends deny that he was, to some degree, active in that campaign, nor do civil service authorities offer anything but condemnation for such activity.

The crusade climaxed with an editorial Wednesday which elaborated at least one of Bennett's charges—that of expressing racial prejudice once in discussing applications for a position.

As against this instance, Kum's friends can point to the fight he waged when chairman in 1949, to have pictures removed from the civil service application blanks. In this, Kum was carrying out a reform, recommended here in the Gallas Report, which has been the subject of fights by minority groups on the Mainland who have felt those pictures were used to discriminate against them.

As for Kum's alleged, political activity, his friends point to the open participation of another commissioner, T. S. G. Walker, in the GOP Territorial convention. It is, of course, no defense of Kum to say that other commissioners have also participated in politics. But it is that sort of omission that led one department head, no friend of Kum, to remark that the Advertiser articles were clearly onesided.

But the fact remains, Kum's supporters say, that civil service is still so young here that the degree of such activity permissible for a civil servant has not even been determined yet. The matter is, in fact, presently something awaiting Governor Long's opinion and betting is that the governor will not favor the civil service rule passed recently by the civil service conference on Kauai.

It would be a better solution, some in City Hall say, to make a definite rule and demand that commissioners abide by it, rather than to atta6k the commissioner who, as chairman, has spark-plugged most of the reforms civil service has enjoyed in the past several years.

If Supervisor Apoliona is to bring any resolution into next week's board meeting, as he announced he would do this past Tuesday, there are many who feel he should broaden his resolution to ask an investigation of the whole civil service setup, including the political activity of Mr. Walker and the many irregular acts of D. Ransom Sherretz, as reported by the RECORD for the past two years.

As for Chairman Kum, incidentally the first Oriental to serve on the C-C commission, he had nothing to say to Bennett's charges as the RECORD went to press. He indicated only that he is uncertain as to what form of action or answer he will make.

"Why don't they investigate the inmate who worked in the educational office every night till 11 o'clock? He had no one to guard him and that's where they got the stuff they drank."

That is the question of an Oahu Prison guard who feels the investigation into the Ditto drinking episode, which cost the lives of six men, is falling short of success.

"Who is responsible for the fact that the fluid was left in the educational office and not locked up safely in a vault?"

That's another question which, if answered, would make administrators share the blame for the drinking spree, which has thus far been borne chiefly by two suspended, guards, Paul Newcomb and J. Popovich.

As for the inmate in question, the guard says, he had the "run of the place,” although an “out prisoner” rating. He was also one of those prostrated in the drinking incident.

“It’s established now,” said one guard, “that the whole thing really is the result of the open house.”

Incorrigible Unit Reopened

Another result of the drinking spree, guards says, is the unpublicized reopening last Thursday of the “incorrigible unit,” which was closed with considerable fanfare less than month ago. Six inmates were moved into the unit at that time and another five have been reported added since, bringing the present total to 11.

The unit has cells for 36 men, and when it was closed, it was hailed by officials as the beginning of a new era at Oahu Prison.

One of the next inmates of the unit, prison rumor has it, will be the escapee, Andrew Peterson, who will be brought back shortly from California by Captain Robert Naauao, who has gone there for that purpose.

Naauao, also chosen as King of Aloha Week, is reported to be making an appearance on a television show while on the Mainland.

As for Peterson, “I hear he’ll occupy cell number two in the incorrigible unit,” a guard says.

California Methodist Leader Blasts Un-American Comm. for Probing Religious Activities of Pastor of First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles

Alarmed at the attack against the church by the House un-American Activities Committee, a leading Methodist in southern California lashed out at that congressional body for travelling the road used by Hitler, Mussolini and Franco.

The Rev. George A. Warmer, superintendent of the Los Angeles District of the Methodist church, condemned the un-American committee for calling the Rev. Stephen A. Fritchman before the body for questioning on his church activities. The Rev. Fritchman is pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Los Angeles.

In a letter published in the Los Angeles Times last week, the Methodist leader said:

"The Jackson Committee's attack upon the Unitarian church and its pioneering pastor is pressure par excellence against freedom of religions, right of assemblage and freedom of thought in the realm of morals.

"When The Church is persecuted for trying to develop the conscience of the times, the tyranny of Rome against the church of the Catacombs is on the way back to power."

Charging that the un-American committee's activities show "McCarthyism come to flower," Dr. Warmer wrote that the probing body "declares war on the right to think and let think and damns the conscience-makers as subversives, even though no overt act can be attached to their operations.

"The First Center of attack is upon the schools, the last upon the church in the destruction of a way of life. We must not sell our birthright for a mess of pottage in this hour of hysteria."

The Rev. Fritchman ripped into the un-American committee for its attempt to invade the field of religion and blasted the group's recent open hearings in Los Angeles, where numerous "hostile" witnesses turned the fire against the probers.

Speaking before a large audience at the Embassy auditorium in Los Angeles last week, the pastor of the First Unitarian Church said:

"I resent more than anything else being said these days in the Federal building the deceptive canard that witnesses are hiding behind a 'cloak' of the Fifth Amendment (right of refusal to testify on grounds of self-incrimination). They are using the Bill of Rights as it was intended to be used—as a sword for free men and women.

"The Fifth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment (the right to hail) are swords of the spirit and they must remain out of the scabbards."

Los Angeles Tried: Mathes Puts On Medina Act

Established court procedures were scuttled in Los Angeles as Federal Judge William C. Mathes last week ordered a defense attorney for the 15 California Smith Act victims to produce information on counsel fees and other defense matters considered privileged in legal cases.
 
Defense Attorney Ben Margolis told Judge Mathes that "some of the records will disclose matters of the defense. I cannot disclose this."

The judge then said: "I order and direct you to produce all records in respect to compensation or money."

Margolis replied that he wanted an opportunity to check the law.

"I'll give you no opportunity to check the law. I order you to telephone and get the books," the judge said.

Judge Mathes in performing the Medina act of New York's Foley Square trial, lost his temper and began shouting at Attorney Margolis.

"Don't interrupt me, Mr. Margolis." he said, "or this court will be short another lawyer."

Attorney Margolis sent for the books under protest.

Attorney A. L. Wirin, counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, objected to the judge's ruling, saying: "I always assumed the question of the relationships between a lawyer and his client to be privileged matters."

"You've made your objections," Mathes snapped at Wirin.

"I was approached as a lawyer. If a court is going to inquire on fees, how many lawyers will be here to defend clients?" Wirin protested.

The Conduct of the Federal district court judge was a shocking display to the spectators. Attorneys there as observers telephoned their friends and colleagues to rush over to the trial to witness the judge's behavior for themselves.

Four thousand Methodist clergymen and laymen, in a three-day annual conference of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, held at Evanston, Ill., made an urgent and the most vigorous plea for peace in its 43-year history. The meeting was held two weeks ago.

The conference called for the fullest use of international diplomacy to prevent World War III.

Responsibility of Christians

The policy statement of the conference pointed to the responsibility of Christians everywhere to participate in the endeavors to bring peace.

"Christian men and women especially have an inescapable responsibility to resist a mood of despair, blind hatred, hysteria and hopelessness," the statement said. "They should seek to develop mutual understanding in which differences with Russia can be reconciled. We reaffirm our conviction that war between the Soviet Union and the United States is not inevitable."

Chinese Representation On UN

The Methodists recommended representation of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations. China's delegates are to be seated "on conditions of a negotiated truce," they said.

The resolution of peace in Korea included the Methodist organization's endorsement of Sen. Edwin, C. Johnson's proposal for terminating the war. The Johnson formula called for cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of troops to the 38th parallel during negotiations.

The resolution on democratic liberties passed by the convention called for the repeal of the Smith, McCarran and Taft-Hartley Acts. Wave of Unprecedented Hysteria

"We are living in a wave of hysteria unprecedented in our history," the resolution said. "Civil rights are violated with a speed that increases with the mounting preparation for war. In our policy of containing communism, we are moving toward our own brand of fascism."

Advocates of peace are attacked in this country, the resolution pointed out, and it pointed to the indictment of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, outstanding Negro leader and scholar.

The conference called the attention of the Americans to "the right of the people to work for peace according to the dictates of their conscience without danger of imprisonment."

Discrimination and segregation along the color line which "we allow to persist in our churches," was condemned by the federation. It voted to memorialize the 1952 general conference of the Methodist church to "make provision for racially inclusive policy at all organizational levels in the Methodist church."

"Grim warnings from the Pentagon are largely propaganda," the Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 3. "Global war danger is increasing, according to Marshall and Pace. What they really fear is a letdown in the arms program, as fighting subsides in Korea. And they want to be sure Congress will appropriate the full $61 billion they're asking for defense in the current fiscal year. Hence the scare talks."

Los Angeles (FP) — The, House un-American activities committee, which says it is investigating communism in Hollywood, would do better to investigate anti-Negro riot in the Chicago area, poll tax persecution in the south and congressmen who filibuster against its reform.

That was the advice the committee asked for—and received— from one of the witnesses subpoenaed before it during the first week of hearings here. The witness, Dr. Max Schoen, declined on constitutional grounds to answer questions about his connection with the Arts, Sciences and Professions Council.

But then a committee member, Rep. Clyde Doyle (D., Calif.) said: "Doctor, how would you conduct this investigation into subversive activities? You have expressed criticism of this committee and how it is proceeding. You are a citizen, and we would like to know how you would go about it and how the committee should go about it."

Schoen replied: "Well, I'd investigate the absolute subversion of the Constitution of the U. S. in the recent mob action in Cicero, Ill., where a group of white people with force and violence ejected a young Negro couple from that community, violating their basic
constitutional rights as citizens.

Denial of Franchise

"Then I would look into the poll tax in the southern states that deprives poor white people and the great majority of Negroes of their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. This I consider subversion of the Constitution.

"And I believe that those senators and congressmen who filibuster against the passage of laws which would guarantee these citizens their rights are subversive characters of the very first class."

Seven. Chinese students are still detained at Blaisdell Hotel since last week because they had taken scientific courses in U. S. universities. Nine were first held, but two have since been released.

With the nine were two children whose parents were among the students.

L. H. Haus of the U. S. Immigration Service here, said the nine were "prevented departure", and were not detained. He did not disclose the names of the released persons.

Say Training "Prejudicial" The U. S. Immigration Service detained the students, who were returning to China on the President Cleveland. The authorities followed a recent Washington directive which prohibits return of foreign students who have received scientific training in the U. S. if their departure to their native homes would be "prejudicial to the U. S. government."

The nine Chinese are part of the host of students from China who were encouraged to study in the U. S. by the State Department. Students from China, during the last war and after, were carefully screened by Chiang Kai-shek's government and U. S. authorities. While the students studied in the U. S. the Kuomintang government fell in 1949 and fled to Formosa.

British Worry About Morale Students who have studied in the U. S. have been returning to their native homes. News reports from Hong Kong have said that British authorities have kept the students on lighters or in isolated railway cars to prevent them from talking to friends there.

At departure time they have been rushed across the border into China. Reports said that the return to China of enthusiastic students who place their hopes in the progress of their country stirs the nationalism of Chinese residents in the British colony.

Tirana (ALN) — Forty-five per cent more Albanian mothers are having their babies in maternity hospitals this year, compared with, 1950. In prewar Albania, there were only 40 maternity beds in the whole country. By the end of 1951 there will be 18 times more maternity beds available.

There are over 200 national unions in the United States, and more than 70,000 local unions.

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Alejandro Llanos, fleecer exposed by the RECORD two years ago, faces sentence in Federal Judge Delbert Metzger's court after having been found guilty, along with six other defendants, on 18 counts as charged.

The charges involve violations of the Federal securities exchange law and using the U. S. mails to defraud.

The other six, a number of whom were also first exposed by the RECORD, are:

Mrs. Salome V. Llanos (wife of Alejandro Llanos), Homfre A. Andrada, Antonio Bacilo, Dionicio Flores, Aquilino S. Galiza and Rogilio Oducayen.

Another defendant, Simplicio G. Rodrigues, was acquitted by Judge Metzger.

Officer Wilder Parker, Jr., is accused by two persons, one a soldier, of rough handling and of using racist epithets in arresting Mrs. Mary Ortiz Tuesday afternoon at the Crescent Hotel, near the islands airport.

"He called me a n - - - - r lover and he used other insulting terms," Mrs. Ortiz told the RECORD.

Her fiance, Staff Sergeant Martin Van Buren, of Hickam Field, corroborates her statement and says he believes the epithet was caused by the fact that he is a Negro and that he attempted to protect Mrs. Ortiz. He says further, that Officer Parker seized Mrs. Ortiz's hair and pulled her against a door.

Officer Denies

Officer Parker denies that he seized Mrs. Ortiz's hair but says: "I did push her because she grabbed my arm. But I didn't pull her hair. I've been on the force too long to do anything like that."

Parker, also denies that he used any racist epithets.

"They violated the law and I arrested them," the policeman said, "and that's as far as it went."

The sergeant, who was to be transferred to the Mainland today (Oct. 4), said he and Mrs. Ortiz became involved with the police, who had been called because of a disturbance in another apartment nearby.

"It was a going away party for me," the soldier said, "and because of the language that was heard, they came in and arrested Mrs. Ortiz."

HASP Participated

Mrs. Ortiz was subsequently tried on Wednesday for interfering with an officer, found guilty, fined $15 and given a suspended sentence of 60 days.

The soldier said Hawaiian Armed Services Police took hold of him and handled him roughly when he attempted to protect Mrs. Ortiz, and later forced him to remain in their jeep for some time, though he was not charged.

He said that Mrs. Ortiz will join him later on the Mainland where they will be married.

The big bosses at the Theo. H. Davies Co., Ltd., had their differences over the advisability of hiring an industrial engineer to reorganize the operation, an employe reports.

Among those said not to favor the plan was Jack Guard, vice president and treasurer of the company, and employes saw it as significant that Mr. Guard retired from the position as general manager, which he also held before the change was effected.

After industrial engineer Edward Frank, mapped out the new operation, it was put into effect and, as reported in previous issues of the RECORD, a number of old-time employes were laid off. The layoffs of the men, some of whom had been given gold watch awards for faithful service, caused resentment among the employes, and many said this was reflected a few weeks later when the office workers voted to join the ALF teamsters' union.

The reorganization, which the employe describes as quite thorough, began in the grocery department and was afterwards carried out in the drug and dry goods departments. This was completed under the direction of Harold Weiddig who was brought here from the Mainland as new manager.

"Aku for Sale!" At a time when Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Ltd., have limited their fishermen to catches of not more than 10,000 pounds, you might expect that the above sign would attract as few customers as a market for refrigerators at the North Pole. But instead, last week the fishermen who supply the Ala Moana market at Kewalo Basin were sold out and had to go catch more to supply the demand.

Low Price Attracts The reason is simply this—when aku is on the market at 20 cents a pound, the customers come in droves. Consequently, cars have jammed around the market maintained by the Commercial Fishermen's Cooperative and business is flourishing. The formation of the cooperative, a fisherman told the RECORD, is an effort to eliminate the middleman, bring aku to the public at prices the public will pay—and to make more money for the boatmen. The cooperative is made up of boatmen who ordinarily work for the Hawaiian Tuna Packers, but who sought some way to keep working at capacity during the present period which sees the canneries fully supplied with aku.

The four boats participating are the Darlin' Dot, the Marlin, the Neptune and the O'Ryan.

So if you're hungry for aku and don't like the prices you find in your favorite market try Ala Moana. But remember, you'll get it the same way the retailer does —head and all.

Peddles Dixiecrat-Ku Klux Klan Line Abroad

The State Department's "Voice of America" has been beaming to European listeners programs which are practically carbon copies of the Dixiecrat attitude toward Negro people, Freedom, a national Negro monthly newspaper published in New York, charged in its September issue.

As an example of the racist propaganda beamed abroad, Freedom quoted from broadcasts intended for German listeners but not for home consumption. The newspaper said the programs raise the familiar bugbear of "Negro domination" in the South, justify the Klan terror against Negro victims and describe. Negroes during Reconstruction as the tools of unscrupulous white "carpetbaggers."

Hits "Goodwill" Propaganda

In a series titled "The Civil Rights Program" in the U. S. German listeners heard the Voice describe the Negro question in this country as "a dispute . . . between the Federal government and the states on what aspects of the civil rights issue can safely be regulated by Federal authorities and what aspects should be left under the jurisdiction of the ... states."

Freedom attacked this "goodwill" line of the State department by pointing to the beatings, killings, house burnings and frame-ups of Negroes. And it said: "So the 'civil rights issue,' or the question of Negro equality and real democracy in the United States is a polite argument among lawyers . . . Just a 'dispute' between Truman and Fielding Wright to see who should have the right to guarantee the Negro his constitutional rights."

The Voice of America, for orientation of Germans to the "American way of life," continued thus: "To the Southerner, emancipation meant northern interference and domination by Negroes who are controlled by Northerners and whose numbers in many states added up to a substantial percentage of the total population. And it is this fear—that Negro equality could be tantamount to domination by Negroes—that explains the efforts of the Southern states to keep the Negroes in check."

Freedom blasted this propaganda by saying: "In other words, the State Department justifies the terror of the sheriff, the court, and the Klan on the ground that Negro equality would mean majority rule—democracy—in areas where Negroes are in the majority. The German audience probably did not know that this identical position was taken by the Dixiecrats in the official States' Rights Handbook for the 1948 election campaign. It is the classic Confederate argument in support of disfranchisement in the South." Message To "Roving Ambassadors" The sympathies of the State Department are thinly disguised, if at all, Freedom remarked. And it added:

"The 'indigenous population' so lovingly referred to always means white Southerners and never the Negroes whose fore-fathers came to the U. S. in 1619 and whose toil on the plantations provided the basis for the primary wealth of the nation. No mention is made of the outstanding record of the 22 Negro congressmen and the scores of state officials who gave the South during Reconstruction the only democratic government it has ever had." A few Negroes are enticed by the State Department to be roving "ambassadors" in other countries, telling the colonial and semi-colonial peoples of the opportunities and equality Negroes enjoy in the U. S. To them, Freedom directed this statement:

"Now that our assorted roving 'ambassadors' have been told how difficult it is to get freedom for their people in the U. S., they ought to be able to caution the world about Truman's promises to integrate hundreds of millions of Indonesians, Indo-Chinese; Malayans and Africans in the world community on the basis of equality." It said the Voice of America is not the voice of the majority of Americans. It belongs to the "paternalistic plantation owners and bankers who view Negroes as pawns and wards of their 'democracy.'"

Maybe this is one Art Rutledge of the Transit Workers Union ought to paste up for future reference.

Luchell McDaniels was fired as a bus driver by the City of San Francisco in late August "at the request of the FBI."

Formerly screened off a ship, McDaniels got a job driving a bus and lasted two months until an old lady fingered him, the Marine Cooks and Stewards "Voice" reports.

The FBI called him a "Communist organizer of international repute," even though he took a "loyalty oath" when he got the job and the civil Service people knew he had been screened off the ship.

The city had spent $400 training him and passengers had expressed themselves as pleased with his service. He had received 42 courtesy citations.

Yet, when the FBI requested, McDaniels was fired, the "Voice" reports, and no other explanation apparently was necessary.

Racial and religious discrimination in industry is costing the nation's economy close to $30 billions a year.

[PAGE 4]

The Maui County Waterworks Board held a public hearing Sept. 25 at the Baldwin auditorium on the question of increasing water rates. Sen. John Duarte (D) attacked the members of the waterworks board by saying: "I've attended many meetings but this meeting is the worst one I have ever attended. It is the most undemocratic way of holding a meeting without giving any reason on proposed increase in water rates."

Another person who attacked the members of the board and was not mentioned in any of the weekly papers on Maui is Augustine Pombo of Wailuku.

Pombo (D) stood up when his name was called and said: "Two and a half minutes is not enough in which to express our thoughts and feelings and furthermore, if Chairman Tam, who is a Democrat, had appointed Democrats instead of Big Five Republicans to the waterworks board, we would not have this meeting or troubles about the water rate. The members of waterworks are all Republicans, so they usually work for the interest of the Big Five,"

* *

Word reached Maui that Tatsuo "Tats" Matsuo and his kid brother Fred Matsuo of Matsuo Brothers, are not on speaking terms. Why? Is it true that financial matters caused the breach?

* *

The Senate race coming next election will probably find a new candidate in Rep. Dee Duponte (D). When asked by the RECORD whether there is anything to rumors going around that she will run for the Senate, she said: "It is only partly true. If there's a weak candidate, I'll run for sure, but otherwise, I'll be seeking the same office as a representative."

* *

H. M. Anderson, fish and game warden, requested that Richard Souza, assistant fish and game warden, be transferred to Lanai. Anderson also asked, it is said, that Souza's position be filled by a haole. Souza resigned rather than be intimidated and sent to Lanai, the RECORD learned.

* *

Whether Judge-Designate William B. Brown of the 2nd Circuit Court will be impartial or partial to any specific group is the question now being asked on the streets by politicians, government workers, businessmen, laborers, etc.

Washington (FP)—Yielding to demands by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and labor and civic organizations, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath ordered a grand jury investigation of riots in Cicero, Ill., last July.

The riots, which involved 3,000 persons, started after a Negro family moved into a Cicero apartment. A Cook County, Ill., grand Jury, instead of indicting the instigators, took action against five persons who came to the aid of the Negro family.

The Women's Division of the Oahu Democratic County Committee has wired recommendation to the National Democratic Party leaders in Washington for the re-appointment of Judge Delbert E. Metzger of the Federal district court.

Wires were sent to Mrs. India Edwards, head of the Democratic National Women's Division, and to William Boyle, chairman of the National Democratic Party.

Thomas Noda represented the United Public Workers of America and August Markham the Hawaiian Government Employees Association as timers at the Wailuku, Maui, debate between Henry Epstein and Charles Kendall two weeks ago. The RECORD story reporting the debate inadvertently reversed the organizations of Noda and Markham.

[PAGE 5]

By Special Writer

Lanai City, Lanai—The Big Strike is over and ILWU Lanai pineapple workers have triumphantly returned to their jobs.

The Pine Island, completely owned by Hawaiian Pineapple Co., Ltd.. has awakened from almost seven months of "slumber." It is today literally a beehive of activity as machines and laborers alike work from sun-up to sun-down, trying to salvage mature fruit in the fields and to put the huge 16,000-acre plantation back into shape.

Salvaging 3,000 Acres of Fruit

There is plenty of work for everyone on Lanai, Including overtime, night shifts and Sunday work. Several temporary workers have been hired as the company makes every effort to salvage some 3,000 acres of golden ripe pineapples. In some cases whole families—those capable of doing any work, are turning out for work.

A good guess is that almost 4,000 acres of fruit rotted away during the lengthy work stoppage.

Barges have been working overtime to transport the cargo of fruit to the Hapco cannery in Honolulu for processing.

Picture From the Sky

That the long, history-making strike has taken its toll of the Lanai pine crop—a loss estimated around the 25-million-dollar figure—can be clearly seen from the air. While flying over the pine fields, overgrown by grass and vines, one gets the impression that the whole countryside is a cow pasture. Some of the fields have been burned prior to being plowed under.

Lanai is a decided contrast from neighboring pine-growing Molokai where from the air, you see a green tapestry, row on row of neatly, planted pines.

The Lanai strike officially began on March 1. Two days before, on February 26, the company suspended 19 union field stewards. Subsequently, the union refused to accept contract terms proposed by the company. Final settlement came on September 14, the day the memorandum of agreement was signed. The Lanai membership ratified the negotiating committee's recommendation by an overwhelming majority, which sent all workers back to their jobs on Tuesday, September 18.

Atmosphere Healthy

The atmosphere among the Lanai workers is healthy. Talk to any Lanai pine worker, from Pedro dela Cruz, union business agent and strike leader, down to any rank and filer and you will be immediately impressed by the feeling of security and victory expressed by their voices and actions.

Right off the bat they will tell you that the biggest gain, outside of the wage increase, is the return of all pine companies to industry-wide bargaining. The workers know this is an important factor in future pine negotiations. The employers, as almost everyone knows, tried to split up the negotiations in 1950, by attempting to negotiate company by company. This resulted in at least one company, Maui Pine, signing a one-year contract and the five other companies winding up with two-year agreements.

Shiro Hokama, Lanai strike finance chairman, put it this way: "The bosses are the ones that are now asking for industry-wide bargaining. One year ago it was just the opposite. Now they want all our units to okay the contract or no dice for anyone. Man, they sure can change their minds fast."

More Than Workers Demanded

There were other vast improvements in the new contract—union security, recognition of Local 142 as a consolidated union, job security, etc.—to which the Lanai workers, point with pride, as "spoils" of the long battle, won not only for pine workers on Lanai, but also for other workers in the entire industry.

On wages, the workers' original demand was 12 cents an hour. The company offered a measly 8 cents. The workers stuck by their guns and did not budge an inch from their demand—this, despite a terrific company propaganda campaign and attacks against the union's leadership.

The final outcome: A wage increase of 15 cents per hour, also 7 cents per hour for workers in other companies. "That has been quite puzzling to the strikers and something that had to be clearly explained," said Pedro dela Cruz, in reference to the wage boost. "They didn't understand at first how we came out with 3 cents more than we asked for. That's the first time any strike ended up with the workers getting more than the original demand."

Sacrifice "Well Worth It"

Going around the plantation camps and just "shooting the breeze" with the boys is enough to convince you that in the final analysis, solidarity and unity were the biggest factors in winning the, 198-day strike. Their spirit somehow can be compared to that of a victorious football team, having just emerged from winning the "big one." And many of the strikers are athletes of renowned ability.

Young Jack Zaan, a tractor mechanic, who did yeoman work, ' both as a "bumming team" captain and a member of the union's negotiating committee, probably expressed the sentiments of other Lanaians when he said:

"Sure it was a tough haul. But I think the sacrifice was well worth it. Our enemies will try and confuse us by continually reminding us of the wages lost during the strike. They spread the same kind of stuff every time our union gets into a beef. I think that's a lotta baloney, because we are in this union to go ahead, not go backwards, or remain as we are and get our rear chewed off. The future is much brighter for everyone concerned as a result of our victory." Mariano Capalato, a veteran pine worker, who has been through plenty of hard times as a sugar worker in the old days, pointed to the fact that not only did the workers win a substantial wage increase and excellent contract language, but also dignity and respect from the employers. Maria-no played a leading role in the strike as chairman of the important relief committee.

Pio Did Good Job

The strike was orderly. There was no violence or disorder of any kind. Pio Hadulco, old in age but with still plenty of fight left in him, should be congratulated for the fine work he did as captain of the strike union police. Looking back on the strike days, Pio said everything was peaceful because the strikers were well organized and everything was well under control.

Brother Hadulco said the strikers got along fine with the local police department. He singled out Sam Onaga, husky Lanai police officer and an ex-Maui high gridder, as a fine example of a "good cop." Onaga, incidentally, was recently transferred to Wailuku, Maui. He was honored at a farewell party by a few of the local boys before his departure for Maui. During his hitch on Lanai, Sam gained a reputation as a "regular guy" among the Lanai residents.

"Bamboo Dining Room"

The strike may be all pau, but one vivid reminder of by-gone strike days—the "Bamboo Dining Room," official name for the union's community soup kitchen —is still the main gathering place and center of activity, where the men and their families meet to talk over the day's activities and also to get their ''3 squares."

Not only are hot meals still served the workers in this soup kitchen but a regular schedule of free movies is also shown for adults and kiddies. Much credit for the successful operation of the soup kitchen goes to the crew of hard-working and expert "chefs" headed by Alejandro Pilaspilas, Teofredo Bella and George Locquioa. Mrs. Chiyoko Goshi, wife of a union member, Brother Katsuki Goshi, a tractor operator, was of great assistance throughout the strike. She put her wide experience as a cook to good stead, preparing the menus and making sure that well-balanced, nutritious meals were served. Mrs. Goshi is well versed in the cafeteria-style of cooking, through her experience in a boarding house.

Received Wide Support

A typical meal served at the "Bamboo Dining Room" would consist of stew and rice, green vegetables, bread, crackers, butter or jelly and coffee or cocoa.

A total of over 1,000 persons were served regular meals during the strike. Today the number is much less. School children, for instance, now eat their lunches at the school cafeteria. Passes or tokens are given each student and the meals are paid for in bulk at the end of each week by the union. Take-out meals are still prepared for both day and night field shift workers. Those working in the nearby garage and shops eat their lunches at the soup kitchen.

Just To Show Who's Boss

Donations from throughout the Territory and the Mainland— from faraway New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Cleveland, Canada— kept the soup kitchen larder well stocked with rice, canned goods, onions, potatoes, flour, etc. Nothing was spared to "shoot the works" when it came to chow time.

Five bags of rice daily are needed to keep everybody well, fed. Also 15 gallons of coffee and 3 gallons of cocoa daily.

When the history of the Lanai strike is finally written, the kokua given by the small merchants on the tiny island should certainly be made a part of it. The Tamashiro brothers of Richard's Shopping Center, aided the strikers no little throughout the strike. Richard, owner of the Shopping. Center, and his brother Takeo, World War II veteran and member of the famed 100th infantry battalion, are well known on Lanai.

The Lanai strike is now past history but the workers will never forget the strike in which the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. sacrificed a 25-million-dollar crop to save $64,000—the union's total wage demand—just to show who's boss around here.

The Airport shooting Monday evening brings to the fore a phenomenon which has caused comment before now—the predilection of underworld characters here for .25 caliber weapons, which used to be scorned as too small only a few years ago. It's a fortunate phenomenon for Tinei Su'a, shot this week, for Orestus Cavness, shot some time ago, and Isaac Salanoa, shot more than a year ago, all with small caliber stuff.

* *

"Most of the publicity on narcotics," says a mother who's been faced with the problem, "doesn't do any good because it doesn't tell the real evils of the stuff. Kids don't know and if you just write about narcotics and teenagers, you just excite them so they want to find out. What you should have are stories and pictures of addicts who can say how terrible it is. Then kids would know enough to stay away from it."

The mother's point is extremely well taken, and the RECORD is looking for material like that now.

* *

The shooting, according to sources about town, which saw Tinei Su'a stretched out by a bullet from the pistol of Ray Wright, may have its origin in an earlier period in Honolulu's underworld annals when Wright is said to have been worked over by Su'a and others, perhaps twice. The shooting came as no surprise to informed sources in the midtown area, and it will be remembered that the RECORD reported almost a year ago that underworld characters were carrying guns for protection.

* *

Talk, too, is that Officers Joe Jones and Frank Foster may have been a little quick on the trigger themselves, since there seemed little danger of Wright's using his gun after Su'a was on the ground. Nor does it speak especially well for their marksmanship that they fired several times and hit Wright only once. But then perhaps they were trying for a non-vital spot. * *

Hugh Lytle, telling the Kiwanis Club about freedom of the press, said Honolulu's press is in the "safe hands" of Riley Alien and Ray Coll.

"As long as these two men are at the head of the papers," he is reported to have said, "we may be assured of justice and understanding."

By his "we," does Mr.Lytle refer to the people who thought up the "Dear Joe" monstrosities of the period during the longshore strike—which shocked Mainland newspapermen as much as they offended many 'Tiser readers? Or does he refer to the advertising heads who authorize real estate ads reading "haoles only"?

* *

Complaints against local people who hold office jobs at Fort Shafter and the 14th Naval District headquarters continue to come in from the islanders who apply at those offices for jobs in the forward areas. Instead of being helpful to applicants, those, receiving personnel at both places are reported as being uncooperative, uninformative and generally as discouraging as possible.

"They say," one applicant related, "that they have to send to the Mainland for a lot of skilled labor. Probably one reason is that the people who take applications are too frosty to find out when they have skilled labor. I know they have carpenters here willing to work in some of those places, yet I hear they send to the Mainland."

At Hickam Field, by contrast, the girl who takes applications is extremely helpful, realizing that workers, skilled though they may be, may often get confused by complicated government forms. To her goes this column's orchid of the week.

* *

Mack Ingram, North Carolina Negro farmer, is currently awaiting trial for a form of "rape" unusual even for the Dixiecrat south. When he crossed the property of a neighboring white farmer on a business errand, he was accused of having "looked at" the farmer's daughter from a distance of 75 feet. This is the basis for a charge of "contemplated rape," reports the newspaper Freedom, in its latest issue.

* *

Consul General Manuel Alzate is planning to leave for the Philippines' Saturday to take an active part in the coming elections, an informed source said. The official will raise money for the Liberal Party campaign.

Working with Mr. Alzate will be Vicente Madrigal, millionaire. Mr. Alzate himself is a big landlord of Nueva Ecija and considered very wealthy in his province. During the last campaign Mr. Alzate was assistant to Mr. Madrigal, who headed the finance committee for Quirino's party.

This year's election is considered important as eight senators, all representatives, governors and municipal officials, including those of Manila, will be elected

* *

Llewelyn "Sonny" Hart, head of the C-C Department of Refuse Disposal, is on his sick leave, taking all the 57 days he has accumulated. His doctor has a letter filed with the civil service saying he needs the leave. The doctor says that although he has succeeded in losing some excess poundage, Hart's weight is still too high and his physical condition none too good. Rest and quiet are in order, the doctor says. But when doctors say that sort of thing, they generally don't mean a fellow's to go bounding about the Mainland to Detroit to bring a new car back—even if you do have one of your C-C subordinates along to help you drive.

* *

Don Beachcomber, in hot water with the liquor commission again, was up Monday at the City Hall explaining why he was using teenage entertainers in violation, of the commission's rule that minors must stay out of places in which liquor is served. Which was all very well, but "why, asked a lady in City Hall, are the young entertainers forced to come and explain their part in the proceedings, too? The violation was not theirs but the proprietor's the lady pointed out, and there seems little reason for subjecting the girls to the quasi-legal atmosphere of the commission's hearings.

* *

Beachcomber, incidentally, was reprimanded for having hired minors for entertainment and in the kitchen, and he brought others for whom he asked permission to hire. The commission's rule is that minors may work in a dispensing establishment only when the commission gives sanction for those particular minors.

* *

A Little experience with life may be quite desirable in a barmaid, the commission agreed not long ago when dispenser said he knew one of his barmaids was not exactly an angel, but anyhow no one was going to cheat her out of a nickel. The commission agreed to give the girl a trial.

[PAGE 7]

Washington (FP)—The Bureau of Labor Statistics has come up with a new study which shows that an elderly couple, retired, needs between $1,700 and $1,800 a year to maintain a "modest" standard of living.

At Federal Security Agency headquarters a query brought the latest figures on social security payments to elderly retired couples. The average is now $70 a month.

This adds up to $840 a year, well below the BLS "modest" minimum standard.

The war program is now running at $5 billions a year—by next July it will be $65 billion.

One destroyer costs $40,000,000; a B-36 bomber costs $3% million.

Of all the protests publicly voiced here against the removal of the crosses from the graves at Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery, we have yet to come across one which points to the $60 billions in war budget spent for more killings.

The parents and relatives of the dead and veterans' organizations have protested the removal of the crosses. The common religious practices of most of the faiths of the dead at Punchbowl call for upright crosses or symbols.

The reason given for removing the crosses is "economy." This is a fantastic reason for pulling out the neat rows of crosses, particularly when the cost of upkeep is infinitesimal when compared to the war budget.

But why is it that there is no such argument posed? Does this show the signs of the times? Fear of suppression? To mention the war program even in such a manner would make one a suspect for "subversion" of the administration's activities.

Truman himself should be answerable to this for he said only recently: "I don't believe in economizing at the expense of the men who have bared their breasts to save this country."

A DAV spokesman said that such economy is "a poor attitude toward the greatest thing a man can do for his country— give his life. If they economize on the dead, the next thing they will do is economize on the disabled."

Rehabilitation and other programs for the DAV have been pared and there is certainly danger of further curtailment. The veterans' program has been slashed.

And the funds gotten from such economizing are applied to the tens of billions used for future killing.

The DAV spokesman pointed to future hardships of the disabled vets. What is more important in the attitude that chopped the spending for cemeteries is this:

That our young men in service, like those in Korea, are being inculcated with the psychology of "Operation Killer" and "Meat Grinder." In such a war of attrition, the opposing forces and the civilians of the battle-torn country suffer, but those who are indoctrinated and urged to carry on such a campaign are debauched and suffer also.

Are they regarded with deep respect, warmth and love by those who economized on the crosses, by those who spend billions which bring hardships on the majority of the people and enrich only the war profiteers?

Tens of billions to kill and die, more tens of billions yet to come, but a pittance for cemetery funds. Where is the feeling of love that we hear so much about—love for all humanity, that the Truman administration speaks of loudly and frequently? Has the "Meat Grinder" been transported for use on the home front?

Trampling The Bill Of Rights?

Step by step the movement of the administration is toward the police state. The fact is that the Truman government has used the red bogey to frighten people into silence to stifle the criticism for its bungling and unpopular program.

There is no political freedom in this country today. There is no freedom of assembly, as even the trade unions are riddled by FBI spies. Phones are tapped by the FBI; big employers and "small fry FBIs" on local levels. Even the freedom of religion is attacked, as the un-American committee proved in Los Angeles recently.

Now comes Truman's order to clamp the lid on government information from civilian agencies. The unpopular war program, not the "potential enemies," is causing the vanishing of the Bill of Rights. Only the people's protest will restore these rights.

17 Cents A Day and 90-Hour Week

(Excerpts from a speech delivered on August 14, 1936, by Henry A. Rudin, for, sixteen years director of welfare on Waialua Plantation. Reprinted from The Voice of Labor, August 17, 1936)

Children are being exploited in Hawaii's cane fields. Last year, Waialua refused jobs to between one and two hundred male applicants, many of whom were starving with their families, and in the summer and on Saturdays of the school year, gave jobs to some 400 children, most of whom did the weeding in the fields under a tropical sun. (Editor's note: Some of these children were as young as nine years.) With all 40 sugar plantations doing the same throughout the Territory, it is a mild statement to say that by exploiting the children, many of whom made as low as 17 cents a day, the planters contributed materially to the depression by taking jobs away from the breadwinners and giving them to little children.

There are men who work 12, 14, 16 and 18 hours a day in Hawaii's cane fields at certain seasons. Mule drivers report at the stables at 4 o'clock in the morning (single ones first preparing their breakfast and lunch), and often they don't get back from the fields until 10 and 11 at night.

Despite the frantic squawks of the Republican planters in 1932 that if Franklin Roosevelt was elected President, Hawaii's sugar industry would be ruined, the HSPA enjoyed last year one of the best financial years in its history. Waialua paid 18 per cent dividends on its par stock and distributed a 50 per cent stock dividend. Ewa, not connected with the pineapple industry, paid $10 a share to its stockholders as a little extra. Other plantations and agencies paid huge dividends to stockholders. And yet the sugar planters continued to work their employes 12 to 15 hours a day, and 84 to 90 hours a week in their factories, and to pay them as low as 9 cents an hour.

The base pay for a 12 to 15-hour day is $1.00, (the next increase is $1.16, the third, $1.24.

Hawaii's mills grind 24 hours a day. Men and women work two shifts of 12 hours each. A large number work 7 days or 84 hours a week. Once every two weeks, workers, in changing from the day shift to the night shift and vice versa, work 18 hours a day or go 30 hours that week. And this health-destroying schedule was followed all through the depression, with thousands unemployed in the Territory, and in the face of earnest appeals from the President of the United States to cut down on hours of labor and give jobs to the starving.

By Frank Marshall Davis

Those "Shortages" Again

Over the past weekend, two newspaper articles quoted business leaders on the nearness of shortages. Judson S. Sayre, general manager of the Bendix Home Appliance division of Avco Manufacturing Corp., predicted "definite shortages" in the hard goods field within the next 45 to 60 days. M. L. Theaker, general manager of Sears, Roebuck in Hawaii, was not so alarmist. He sees shortages only when the war production program increases to its 100 per cent potential from the current 35 to 40 per cent. And that will be considerably beyond "45 to 60 days."

From the evidence, I am inclined to go along with Mr. Theaker. I would not dare suggest that the Bendix man is trying to use a bit of scare psychology to pressure the public into buying washers and other home appliances, but I do know that many manufacturers of hard goods have so much of the stuff on hand they are having waves of nightmares. Inventories are running an estimated 50 per cent above those of a year ago.

Industry Planned for the Last Killing

There are two reasons for this situation. One is the tremendous productive capacity of American industry. The other is the inability of the ordinary consumer to buy what Industry produces. The Korean war loomed as a gold mine to manufacturers and sellers. When it was announced that many factories would convert to war production, and the administrators of the Defense Production Act spoke of price ceilings in order to make it possible for all to buy in the face of looming shortages, industry literally broke its neck turning out consumer goods so as to make a last killing before grabbing off the government gold.

Speculators borrowed as much from the banks as their credit would allow and loaded up on automobiles, electrical appliances, furniture, textiles, etc. Then they sat back, rubbed their hands and waited for the cash to roll in.

But it didn't roll. OPS kept at it until it "stabilized" prices up near the peak of Mt. Everest, out of reach of virtually, everybody except those who own the factories.

Now the Come-ons To Lure Public

The result was that continued production has found goods piling up in warehouses. Speculators and retailers haven't been able to get rid of all the stuff they bought before. That is why inventories are currently about 50 per cent above a year ago.

Supplies of raw materials are abundant except for a few metals and chemicals, among them sulphur. Currently, there are shortages in very few consumer items.

The problem is not how to distribute goods so that everybody can buy. Instead, the question is how to get them off the retailers' shelves to anybody. Bather than tell the prospective customer that he will have to wait until a new shipment) arrives, many Mainland establishments are now offering come-ons to lure the public. Some stores are giving away groceries or other appliances with purchases of freezers or refrigerators.

Lack of Consumer Cash Causes High Inventories

At the annual market fairs where manufacturers display goods for the trade, the big topic was how to sell the stuff. The feeling seemed to be that consumers were banking their money instead of spending it.

However, some sections of Big Business are beginning to realize that it's not lack of consumer interest that has caused alarmingly high inventories, but rather lack of consumer cash. The National Industrial Conference Board, financed by industry, has just issued a report which said:

"Recent rises in personal income have been relatively small. And employment has shown little change. In fact, it has been rising less than seasonally, and conversion layoffs may hold it in check for the next few months. Relatively few potential purchasers of TV sets and washers have entered the discretionary market in recent months."

When it is remembered that only a small fraction of the 63,000,000 employed have received the cost-of-living wage increases allowed by the Federal wage control formula, you see why stocks are not moving from retailers' shelves.

Paycheck Won't Stretch

With the prices now asked, the ordinary employed person simply can not stretch his paycheck to buy both food and a new refrigerator. Most people would rather eat than tighten their belts as they enjoyed the aesthetic beauty of a shining new de luxe electric ice box.

It is possible that there will be shortages in durable goods some six months from now. But what difference will shortages or long supply make to the average guy whose income is so low that he can't buy anyway?