The Newspaper Hawai‘i Needs
 
 
 

Index / Volume 4 / Volume 4 No. 17

pages 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l 7 l 8

Volume 4 No. 17, November 22, 1951

Official Bureau Offers Tours At Far Lower Rates

Many of the hundreds of patrons of local travel agencies pay more than twice as much for travel and accommodations in Japan as they would if they embarked for that country independently and put themselves in the hands of the official Japan Travel Bureau upon arriving.

That was the revelation this week of a number of returnees from excursion trips who came back to Hawaii last week on the SS President Wilson. Spokesman for the group was Shigeo Takemoto, member of the Maui civil service commission, who patronized a Mr. Yoshimizu of the Komatsuya Hotel agency, only to allow it to make hotel arrangements for him a part of the time. Later, when he moved into other hotels on his own, he found he had been charged about $15 U. S. for accommodations that should have cost him about $5 U. S.

Further investigation by the RECORD revealed that the charges may be even higher than Takemoto thought.

$850 Low

Queries at three hotels, the Komatsuya, Kobayashi and Nakamura, showed that the price quoted by Komatsuya was lower than the others. It was, to one inquirer, "a little more than $300." Another who inquired later, was given a figure of $850.

The Kobayashi Hotel agency, going a little higher, named $865 as a price and the Nakamura quoted $870.

Figures on all three were based on a $430 price for third-class round-trip passage (toku-san) on American President Lanes ships and all are the prices for 21-day tours.

Travel Bureau Lower

But a spokesman at the Japanese Overseas Government Agency quoted figures for a number of different types of tours conducted by the Japan Travel Bureau, and the highest of these, the De Luxe Tour, costs only $166.50, and is called an "all-expense" tour. To this, however, may be added $2 a day for hotel, if tourists are to! stay two to a room, or $4 for single rooms.

Takemoto and others said those travelling under agency auspices for the flat rate always room two, and sometimes three to a room.

The inescapable conclusion arrived at by RECORD investigators was that a traveller to Japan, if he put himself in the hands of the Japan Travel Bureau upon arrival there, would be charged less than half what they pay in advance for the same accommodations and the same tours when they book their tours through agencies.

$88 By Bus

Although there is some variety in accommodations offered on various tours, the $166.50 paid by the traveller who books his De Luxe tour in Japan from the official agency puts him in a group of four who travel together in one vehicle. If he wishes to take the Popular tour, he pays only $88 and rides in a group of 16 in a bus. It is impossible for travellers who wish to book their trips with the Japan Travel Bureau to do so here unless they write directly, the Japanese government spokesman said. But the office here can give advice on prices and tours.

That's where the agencies come in for their extremely lucrative business.

"The old folks," said the government spokesman, "don't like to go through all the bother with their papers and internal revenue. It would take more time for them than for a professional, and they're willing to pay, for it."

Whether or not they know how much they're actually paying is another question. Returnees on the Wilson Indicated that they had previously no conception of the actual costs in Japan before their trip.

More than that, one agency, that of the Kobayashi Hotel, prophesied that the rate of $865 will be raised soon, because of an expected 30 per cent increase in all transportation costs in Japan. The Komatsuya said, on the other hand, that the increase would not come for some time and that it wouldn't make any difference in the price of tours paid for here—at least not now.

The Japanese government spokesman said a resolution was passed Oct. 31 increasing fares on the national railway 30 per cent, and also charges for telephone and telegraph service.

Eager To Sell

At all three agencies, RECORD investigators were greeted with eagerness by the agencies, so long as they were considered potential customers, and they felt this eagerness reflected the keen competition among agencies here for the highly profitable trade.

There was not, however, the same eagerness to explain a breakdown of the costs and possible refunds. Some agents avoided making any substantial breakdown into prices of hotels, food, transportation costs, etc. Regarding refunds for travellers who might wish to spend part of the 21 days visiting relatives, or on business, one agent said such refunds were possible, but he didn't go into detail.

$13 Refund

Another, the agent at the Nakamura Hotel, said there would be a refund of $13 a day. But his quoted price of $870. with $430 for ship passage, leaves $440 to cover the 21 days in Japan, or almost $21 a day.

That spokesman, admitting that it would be much cheaper for the travellers to go Without using the agency, argued, "but you'd have more fun. You'd see the girls, you know, where they make motion pictures."


Boat, Plane Fare to Japan 2,3 Times That to Mainland

The distance between Honolulu and San Francisco is a little less than two-thirds the distance between Honolulu and Tokyo, but the passenger traffic rate charged by airlines for travel to San Francisco from here, is about one-third of the charge for a flight to the Japanese city.

Similarly, charge per mile of travel by ship is almost two and a half times more for passage to Yokohama than it is for a trip to San Francisco.

Criticized As Discriminatory

Travellers to the Orient say that this is highly discriminatory and say that the rates for traffic to the Far East should be brought clown.

The board of supervisors of the city and county of Honolulu and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce have both come out for reduced rates for passage to the Orient. Supervisor Samuel Ichinose is reported to have initiated the move after his trip to Japan.

The rate charged by Pan American World Airways from here to San Francisco is $184 for one way and $331.20 for a round-trip ticket. To Tokyo, the charges are $515 for one way and $927 for a round trip.

The American President Lines charge $90 for men and $100 for women, steerage class, to San Francisco, and $135 minimum for first class. For tickets to Yokohama, there are two steerage rates of $215 and $250, and $390 minimum for first class passage.

Air miles between Honolulu and San Francisco is 2,400 miles, and from here to Tokyo, 3,860 miles.

Surface travel charges have gone up considerably since the beginning of the war. According to the Hawaii Times Nov. 16, ocean passage was $60 per person before the war compared to $215 charged today.

Monopoly Scored

The board of supervisors' resolution says the high rate is the result of monopoly by the PAA and the APL.

A source reportedly well informed about airlines operations, told the RECORD that the reason for the "low rates" between here and the Mainland is that the fares have been brought down "to promote travel to the islands." He said Mainland-Hawaii fares are, therefore, "almost comparable to coach fares anywhere else."

Leonard Withington, secretary of the maritime affairs committee! of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, said that the civil aeronautics bureau establishes the rates for air traffic. He added that passenger tariff is set generally by traffic operating between the points of travel. West Coast to Hawaii is highly competitive, he also said.

Big Fish Alone Escape

The so-called pay-as-you-go tax bill that bites into the limited resources of those who do the work of the nation for another nearly 12 per cent of taxes was enacted in the last minutes of the Congress just adjourned. This law is another sad example of the inequality of sacrifice that goes on under prevailing circumstances. There will be no delay in collecting this extravagant and unjust tax from those who work for wages, but there will be plenty of delay for the malefactors of great wealth, as FDR used to dub them, to call in their lawyers and pay them the money they ought to pay the government, to find the loopholes in the tax law for them.

—Minneapolis Labor Review


Di Lucia Hit For Reading Seamen's Mail; Act Probed

Honolulu Commissioner of Customs Francis X. DiLucia, has little answer to make to charges, bared in the latest issue of the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union "Voice," that he harassed Joe Taylor, MCS Lurline delegate, and read personal mail of seamen on the China Transport when it was in Honolulu.

"I have operated within the realm of my jurisdiction," DiLucia said, adding that he was duty bound not to say more, since an investigation of the charges by the customs department is reported in progress here.

But the "Voice" reports Customs officials Fred Gardner and Martin G. Scott were interviewed by an MCS delegation headed by President Hugh Bryson, and that Gardner admitted "DiLucia had no right to take Joe Taylor's seaman's papers."

Interpreting the action on the China Transport as aimed at the MCS, the "Voice" reported: "The customs representative (in Honolulu) looked through MCS members' lockers and read their personal mail. One of the members had a diary which the customs officers read from cover to cover. The black gang and deck gang members were not molested in any way."

Lurline Delegate Taylor told the customs officials that he had passed DiLucia. three times prior to the search against which he was protesting.

Searched After Confab

MCS member Ted Rolfs told the officials that he and four other members, all returning delegates from an MCS convention, had been searched by DiLucia in Honolulu, their books taken from them and letters from their families read.

President Bryson said that, although Taylor was not found guilty of smuggling or any other offense, the search might be used as a basis for screening the delegate off the ship, and he prophesied that if this happened, the Lurline would not sail.

 

My Thoughts For Which I Stand Indicted XI.

I was on night shift at an army transport dock in San Francisco on the night of December 7, 1941—"Pearl Harbor" day. During the morning I heard the news of the Japanese attack over the radio.

One of the first thoughts that occurred to me was about the status of people of Japanese ancestry in the United States in this new situation. I recalled the Hearst "yellow peril" propaganda that poisoned the minds of people against Orientals on the Mainland, particularly on the West Coast. I recalled the stories I had heard and read of ill and brutal treatment of early Japanese and Chinese immigrant labor in the western states. I thought of the racist attitude prevailing among people in power when the Japanese exclusion act was passed in the '20s. I remembered stories of the cruel treatment of German Americans during the first World War, of how they were stoned and chased by mobs of people propagandized with hate.

Will we go on living as we are, making our contributions to the war effort as any other person, or will we be subjected to demands for "proving" our loyalty? During the decade prior to "Pearl Harbor," Japanese Americans were criticized by the press in Hawaii and on the West Coast for not denouncing Japanese aggression in Manchuria and China proper strongly enough. There were some, however, who wanted expressions of loyalty in order to strengthen their defense of the Japanese Americans.

Although the Japanese Americans took this country as their native land and their parents regarded the United States as their adopted country, those white Americans who were prejudiced against us because of color and behaved accordingly in everyday life, questioned our loyalty the most. Racists who discriminated against any non-white were quick to question our loyalty, or doubt our loyalty. This was logical. Ironically, this is the behavior of people who feel they are "the Americans" and because they have not treated non-white people with decency and respect, they could not see how these people could love a country which they call their own. Here are people with a different concept of what America means. One thinks of it in terms of monopoly by a few. while the other believes in the extension of constitutional rights to all—still not obtained.

On December 7. I went through my bags to pick out my selective service card, citizenship certificate, seaman's papers and other identification. These I carried to work with me that night.

I Was the Cause of the Commotion

Shortly after we commenced working there was a great deal of commotion on the dock, with army officers and enlisted men rushing around. We longshoremen commented that war had alerted everyone, particularly the military.

Then, we all learned that I was the cause of the excitement. A man in army uniform grabbed my arm and took me to a major who was all flustered.

The major was intensely infuriated and indignant at me because I did not realize what a serious situation I had created for him by being present on docks where military cargo was handled. "But I am a citizen!" I told him and took out my citizenship paper, birth certificate and other identification.

"You can't work on the docks from now on. Don't ever come back here! Can't you see we are at war with Japan?"

"I'm a longshoreman and a citizen. Even aliens have the right to work cargo on these docks," I said.

Citizenship Treated As Scrap of Paper

The major told a sergeant to take me out of the docks. I pointed at my identification papers and the major shoved them toward me. He said they did not mean a thing to him. He was concerned about our country, he said. I said I was too, when citizenship was a scrap of paper without meaning to him.

Finally the major said,: "Come see me tomorrow at the Presidio. Here's my name and address."

The following day I went to see him. The guard at the gate phoned him. The major could not see me; he was busy. No, not even tomorrow or the next day or the day after. I understood very clearly.

My Lunch Kit Gets a Going Over

Thereafter, the union dispatcher at the hiring hall sent me out to work on private docks which handled non-military cargo. Since army transport docks took only citizens, most of the longshoremen I worked with were aliens. Some were German and Italian, but they were against Fascism and Nazism.

Down on the waterfront, sentry boxes were everywhere. Even as I walked to work on the Embarcadero to my assigned dock, national guard sentries halted me at short intervals. Often I was stopped more than 10 times. The sentries examined my pass and when they saw my Japanese name they became excited. A few of them made telephone calls to their superiors. Every one examined my lunch kit, and for each of them I took out my sandwiches and thermos bottle to show I concealed nothing. When some tried to stall me and I was afraid I would be late for work, I pulled out my citizenship paper. The sentries changed frequently and this made it more difficult for me, as I had to go through the same ritual night after night. The "Free" Press Did a Damnable Job

Some guards made it very unpleasant for me. They were young, inexperienced and I was afraid, trigger-happy. A few told me in no uncertain way that if they had their way, they would shoot me. • The "free" press was then doing a damnable job. The Hearst newspapers were leading the assault against people of Japanese ancestry. Japanese American loyalty was ripped to shreds and painted black as night. Rumors of downed Japanese airmen in Honolulu wearing rings of West Coast universities, Japanese American sabotage and other groundless information were printed as facts day after day, even after government authorities who conducted an investigation, denied such acts. Japanese toy weapons were photographed and printed in West Coast newspapers as actual weapons.

Japanese Stereotyped To Create Hatred for Them

In whipping up war feeling, Japanese Americans became scapegoats. The anti-Oriental press on the West Coast really went to town and they played a great role in creating the sentiment to oust us from the western states. These newspapers showed Japanese in horn-rimmed glasses and with buck teeth. This was propaganda to create hatred for all Japanese. The meaning of Japanese imperialism, the thought control of people in Japan starting with persecution of Communists, trade unionists and liberals in order to stifle criticism of the policy of foreign aggression, the feudalism of the countryside that made peasants serfs of landlords, were not explained to the American people.

The newspapers and radio propagandized that all Japanese were "treacherous." War feeling created through such information was unhealthy. Americans should have been informed about the basic reasons for Japanese aggression and who profited from it, and to fight them, not the Japanese people in general because of their alleged "inherent treachery" or their "horn-rimmed glasses and buck teeth.

White Imperialism Lost Prestige

With time, I was to learn that the war had different meanings for various people. For the white supremacists and western imperialists, the early Japanese victories were a terrific loss of prestige for the white man. For West Coast racists and vested economic interests, it meant the opportunity to wrest cherished properties from Japanese aliens and their children, accumulated through many years of toil, by banishing these people inland. For the workers and democratic minded people, it meant the struggle to defeat fascism at home and abroad, to defeat imperialism and help win freedom for colonial people.

I deeply felt the effect of the white-supremacy and racist propaganda every time the sentries stopped me on the Embarcadero. German and Italian aliens were not stopped, and they did not have to take their sandwiches out to show that eggs of luncheon meat were between slices of bread, and not dangerous weapons. Union Brothers Back Me Up

One night as I started up the gangplank a guard told me to jump down and wait until everyone had gone on the ship. The gangplank was pretty crowded with longshoremen in front and back of me. A great many of them knew of my difficulties and had seen me showing my citizenship paper.

"Tell the Hawaiian brother to show his citizenship paper!" a longshoreman yelled.

"Stop bothering the poor guy. He's a native American and he gets treated worse than us aliens!" came from someone else.

"Show the guy your paper, brother!" another longshoreman yelled.

Up and down the gangplank union brothers swore at the guards. The uncomplimentary remarks directed at them brought laughter. The longshoremen had no love for national guardsmen who had been used by employers to shoot and club them in past) strikes.

The guard on the ship pointed his rifle at me and I finally got out. of the line where I was sandwiched by shoving longshoremen.

After this incident, if I worked in a ship, I had to wait until all the stevedores had climbed the gangplank. Then a special guard with fixed bayonet accompanied me down into the ship's hold where I worked.

I Carried a "Dangerous Weapon"

Several weeks later, I was handling sacks of plaster on a dock. Someone from behind yanked out my cargo hook which I carried in the back pocket and tore my jeans. I whirled around and saw a national guard sergeant.

"What's"the matter?" I asked.

"You're under arrest," he said. Then he turned the hook in his hand to indicate that it was a dangerous weapon.

(This I recalled a few months ago when three FBI agents burst into my home in an early morning raid and rushed into our bedroom. Then they went through our bookshelves and picked up three books from among many and handled them as though they were dangerous items. These books, like the cargo hook, are sold in the open market and are on library shelves.)

The sergeant of the guard would not let me talk to my foreman. I picked up my jacket and lunch kit. I then noticed a lieutenant and five enlisted men besides the sergeant. The sergeant and a private with a fixed bayonet walked behind me, with others in front and on each side.

As I was marched off the dock the longshoremen in my gang milled around the state guards and demanded that they examine my papers. Those I had come to know quite well began protesting. Before we were out of the docks a small demonstration was taking place.

The FBI, army and navy intelligence men questioned me at the Perry building. Why did I leave Hawaii? Why did I go to Georgia? Did I go to the seaport of Savannah? Why didn't I? Etc., etc. There Were Only Two AJA Longshoremen

Twice the state guards picked me up in the same manner, with so much fanfare that the longshoremen gave them a razzing they deserved. I still kept on working and this annoyed the intelligence agencies. There were two of us Japanese Americans working on the San Francisco docks. One day we were called to the waterfront employers' office and told that the army did not want us to work on the docks any more.

Some Japanese families were being evacuated by the government from so-called strategic areas. I considered going on the farms as a migratory laborer. Only One Newspaper Helped Fight "Jap Hunting License"

About this time my Japanese American longshore friend and I learned that a printer was selling a poster saying: "Open Season! Jap Hunting License." We went to the print shop and told the owner that this sort of incitement would stir up race riots.

"Never mind; we don't want the Japs around here," he said, thinking we were Chinese.

We went to the daily newspapers in San Francisco and wrote them letters asking them to discourage such activities. Only one newspaper out of many responded and as I recall it was the Daily People's World whose editors are today on trial under Smith Act indictment for advocating and teaching the overthrow of government by force and violence.(To Be Continued)

 

 

Local Man Arrested By Manila Officers; Freed After Union Bros. Act

Stewards department men aboard the SS President Wilson were ready to walk off in Manila during the recent stop there, in protest against the beating and jailing of Thomas "Blackie" Kuaano, crew member from Honolulu, by Philippines customs officials, seamen told the RECORD.

The incident occurred shortly before the Wilson was ready to cast off, seamen said, and it began when Kuaano intervened in an argument between customs officials and another seaman. "They hit him over the head with a blackjack and arrested him," a seaman said. Later, when it appeared that the ship would sail without him, the stewards department made known its intention of walking off in mass protest. The agent of the President Lines got busy talk-tag to Philippines customs officials and Kuaano was released. The ship sailed on schedule.

Wallace Ho, Honolulu Marina Cooks and Stewards Union port agent, confirmed the incident and said it and others will form the basis for protests against corruption in the Philippines government agencies, to be sent by Hugh Bryson, president of the union, to President Elpidio Quirino of the Philippines, to President Truman and to the U. S. State Department.

 

'Tiser's Curtain Against Kum Recalls Mayor's 25-Year Feud With Riley Allen

Cops Wouldn't Search Waikiki Hotel As They Did Kalihi Home, Judge Says

When Judge Kenneth E. Young castigated members of the police vice squad last Friday for their beating of Francisco Dela Cruz after arresting him on his own premises for disorderly conduct and for assault and battery on a policeman, he posed a question which was not reported by the dailies.

Discussing a point with Bernard Trask of the C-C prosecutor's office, he made the comparison of police action at Dela Cruz's home in Kalihi and in Waikiki.

"At Waikiki there is a beautiful hotel, the Edgewater," said Judge Young. "They get a call informing them there's prostitution—that a girl is working out there. Would they rush in past the manager, open the doors of the rooms and look under the beds? Do you think the police

would go out to the Edgewater and do what they did here? I don't think so."

Dela Cruz was beaten so badly he had to be hospitalized after Officers Takabayashi, Sam Liu and two others, entered his premises Oct. 25 and began searching, without a warrant. Dela Cruz protested the officers' presence and was beaten in the fracas that followed. Police charged him as stated above and Friday, after hearing the case, Judge Young acquitted him with a statement which drew a hot rejoinder a day later from Chief of Police Dan Liu.

Cops Trespassing

In his statement, not all of which was reported in the daily press, Judge Young said he did not wholly believe either the testimony of the police or of the defendant.

Dela Cruz had denied that he struck Officer Takabayashi, as the policeman said, but Judge Young said: "I believe the defendant did strike the officer. However, the officers were in reality trespassing and the defendant had a right to use reasonable force to resist an illegal search."

After the arrest, Judge Young said: "I feel they (the officers) gave this man quite a severe beating that was not justified."

Further, Judge Young said: "A murder or a killing might have resulted from the actions of the police."

"Greater Crimes" And he added: "The police sometimes commit greater crimes in their efforts to find evidence ofgambling. Actions of this kind cannot be condoned."

Chief Liu attacked next day, with "shock and dismay" in the columns of a daily, to say he found Young's words "appalling and most regrettable." Liu objected to the "greater crimes" part of Young's statement on the ground that the police "crime" is that of mistaken judgment, and he objected further, that the judge's statement might be interpreted as meaning that "murder or killing of police may be committed with impunity following Illegal entry or arrest."

Judge Young answered that he had meant no such thing—only that Dela Cruz might have been killed if he had fallen on his head during the incident.

Said the judge: "I consider assault and battery of a man a more serious thing than the minor offense of gambling."

 

[PAGE 2] [back to the top]

 

Maul Notes

When Eddie Ujimori, employe of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., Ltd., gave an orientation talk to 16 pineapple workers at Honolua on apprenticeship training program, he warned the prospective trainees to protect themselves from the "raw deals" experienced earlier by HC&S apprentices.

The apprentice training program was instituted at HC&S Co. in March 1946, with about 18 participating. Practically all trainees were World War II veterans, and they were employed in the tractor, machine, welding, blacksmith, garage, electrical shops and power plant.

The agreement signed by the apprentice, Territorial Apprentice Council and the company said that after completion of the required hours of training, all apprentices would be classified Grade 9 journeymen. This was lowered to Grade 8 a few months later, and again lowered to Grade 7. Then in 1949, it was lowered to Grade 5 by the HC&S Co.

Peeling that a fast one was being put over on them, the apprentices met to discuss the problem. The company heard about this meeting and notified the ILWU that it would give Grade 7 to all apprentices after the completion of the courses, provided Section 5 in the contract was waived.

The apprentices flatly rejected the company proposal.

* *

The Maui Chapter of the Independent Taxi Drivers Union was recently organized by UPWA

Regional Director Henry Epstein. The first meeting was held on Nov. 16 at the ILWU division headquarters in Wailuku. Among the first to sign the membership roll were Daniel Moikeha, and Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Araki.

* *

Richard Gima , Star-Bulletin reporter who arrived on Maui on Nov. 15 to gather names of Democratic precinct officers, faced a stone wall when county committee secretary, Rep. Dee Duponte, refused to cooperate until the county committeemen and committee-women gave their approval. According to Mrs. Duponte, who had a telephone conversation with William Ewing, managing editor of the Star-Bulletin, the newspaper wants to get the information for its files.

Other Democratic officials feel that something is cooking when the Star-Bulletin goes to all that trouble and expense to collect information such as this.

Gima said that on Kauai and Hawaii he had no trouble at all in getting the names of precinct officers from the secretary, but here on Maui, since he can't get any information from the secretary, he would have to contact each precinct in order to get the names of the officers.

* *

The second unit of 200 homes costing between $7,000 and $9,000 is now being built at New Kahului Town—better known as "Dream City." Reliable sources say that no bids were sent to any

of the contractors, but KD Co. officials and a contractor have talked things over to build the homes. Sources say: "No wonder the KD Co. is making a big profit."

* * THE Puunene School PTA went on record that hereafter, complaints will be taken up by the grievance committee. Grievance procedure will be drafted by a member to be approved by the Puunene School PTA executive committee at the next executive board meeting.

* *

Eddie Ujimori tractor shop steward, will file a grievance against Richard Gonsalves, field equipment and repair shop foreman, this week. The grievance is that Gonsalves has been favoring his son Ralph, who is also employed in the same shop. Ralph is alleged to be getting all the breaks by working in the magneto room, where magnetos, starters, distributors, carburetors, etc., are repaired, while other employes have no opportunity to ever work in there.

The work Ralph Gonsalves is doing is classified as Labor Grade 9. Last year when he was only a Labor Grade 5 man he worked in there and acquired experience, and only recently he was promoted to Labor Grade 7. Beginning two Mondays ago, he was transferred temporarily with Labor Grade 9 pay, which is clear-cut favoritism and discrimination against others who have much greater seniority than young Gonsalves. Ujimori's beef against the foreman is reportedly supported by all workers in the tractor shop.

 

FBI's Gossip Gathering Encounters a Roadblock; Trouble for Its Informers

By John B. Stone (Federated Press)

The amazing and ominous growth of J. Edgar Hoover's self-created Federal Bureau of Investigation from an unknown appendage of the Justice Department to a national secret police at last met something that has the aspects of a roadblock.

Now that the excitement which accompanied publication of The Federal Bureau of Investigation by Max Lowenthal has died down, it may be possible to associate that book with the recent U. S. Supreme Court decision allowing persons accused to the FBI by malicious persons to sue in court.

To put it briefly, that well-documented book, which exposes the role the FBI has played in wrecking militant unions, should be read carefully by every person interested in the continued existence of any union which dares express its desire to better the workers' position through strike action. And it should be read by any person who believes this free democratic country can do without a secret national police.

But to come to the Supreme Court decision.

Despite the "packing" of that high tribunal by the current Washington administration with such questionable advocates of democracy as Tom Clark and Harold H. Burton and despite the free rein the administration has given Hoover and his gang in wire-tapping and other unconstitutional infringements of American liberty, Truman's own Supreme Court has dared to defy the FBI chief.

In a 6 to 3 decision the high, court declared that a person who has been named through malice by an informant to the FBI may bring suit for damages against the person giving the information.

The case involves Cecil E. Foltz, Jr., who says he was fired from a responsible post in the Economic Cooperation Administration in Korea because of "false, misleading and defamatory statements" given to the FBI by his former employer, the Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc.

Foltz brought suit for $350,000 damages. A lower court in New York threw out his case but the circuit court of appeals in New York said he had a right to sue.

The Supreme Court, in effect, told him to go ahead and sue. The appeals court agreed that the FBI is an agent of the U. S. government and as such, has some special privileges. But it declared it is desirable to allow some restraint to reduce the waste of requiring the FBI to investigate "false charges maliciously made."

It seems simple enough. But the implications for anyone who dares say something the government doesn't like are tremendous.

Take the Judith Coplon case in Washington, for instance. There, a judge who believed in actual evidence rather than the sayso of an FBI agent, demanded that the FBI produce in court its actual records. These records revealed an amazing collection of hearsay by malicious neighbors, envious acquaintances and just plain gossips.

It is apparent from the earnestness with which the government fought the case before the Supreme Court and the pontifical statements by Hoover that such a decision would wreck operations of his FBI, that gossip as such, plays an important role in the FBI compilation of so-called evidence.

The Supreme Court decision, by itself, merely allows one man to sue for damages.

But according to attorneys well versed in legal ways, it means that from now on, anyone who suffers damage because a malicious person goes to the FBI with gossip, can sue the gossiper.

That means Hoover will have a considerable decrease in the number of eager beavers flocking to his secret police with stories about personal enemies.

Faced with the possibility of a suit for thousands of dollars, these eager servants of gossip will think twice before handing their stories over to the U. S. secret police.

 

Okinawa Good for Americans, Not for Okinawans, Under U. S. Administration

Life for Americans on Okinawa and life for the Okinawans themselves, are two vastly different things, according to a report of the Pan-Asia Newspaper Alliance, an agency noted largely for its anti-Communist views. . Double standards of living exist not only in housing but in purchasing the necessities of life.

PANA reported July 1: "Okinawa, where 63 per cent of the Ryukyuans live, provides a striking contrast in life and living. While on the southern half of the island, where U. S. administrative installations are concentrated, a stateside look is fast appearing on the surface as a result of prefabricated metal and Quonset houses, apartments and Florida-type as well as typhoon-proof residential quarters, the northern half, where most Okinawans live, looks dirty, dull and poverty-stricken. "In the American area, most roads are tarred and have a hard gravel base. At Naha, political and economic hub of the Ryukyus, there are only dirt roads and narrow alleys.

"A good many of the indigenous dwellings are shacks or improvised constructions made of wood and ' tin gathered from the packing cases and cans discarded by the U. S. Army and Air Force. Most other houses are typical wood and paper dwellings with thatched roofing. Only a half-dozen concrete structures could be seen. These Japanese-type modern buildings are invariably owned by the new rich people."

Okinawans find, PANA- reports further, that they can purchase only the bare necessities such as rice, vegetables and thin slices of fish. Based on prewar figures, the price of fish has tripled, PANA says, clothing has doubled in cost and building materials are up 250 per cent.

Since the average income of the Okinawan is not enough to enable him to buy the necessities of life, PANA reports, he must "make up the gap" by sending his eldest son or daughter into the American area to work as a houseboy or a maid.

PANA says a wide-open black market flourishes, most of the profiteers being Okinawan businessmen who are engaged in export-import transactions, "selling construction materials and furnishing supplies to the American area."

Because of the acute housing shortage, not substantially improved by the U. S. occupation of more than five years, the most ramshackle residence requires "key money" for the Okinawan to rent it.

 

Miss Liberty's Bad Day In Court

(New York Post, June 5, 1951)

In affirming the conviction of the Communist leaders, a majority of the Supreme Court has upheld the infamous Smith Act. We believe the bold dissenting opinions of Justices Douglas and Black will be reverently remembered long after the tortured phrases of Chief Justice Vinson (and the uneasy, agonized concurrences of Justices Frankfurter and Jackson) have been repudiated and forgotten.

Let there be no misunderstanding about the meaning of the decision. At stake was the issue of whether, under our Constitution, men may be punished for mere advocacy of inflammatory ideas. The Communist chieftains were not convicted of serving as foreign agents, which is the only unchanging idea in the modern Communist book. They were not convicted of acts of espionage and sabotage, for which adequate legal penalties exist. They were convicted of conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the U. S. government by force and violence. That is the verdict which the high court has sustained.

To justify the decision Chief Justice Vinson was compelled to write his own perversion of the "clear and present danger" concept. The Communist conspiracy, he said, has "created a 'clear and present danger' of an attempt to overthrow the government by force and violence." The weasel words are unworthy of a Chief Justice. He does not seriously contend that Communist propaganda has created the peril of an imminent uprising in the U. S. A. ... If his opinion means anything, Vinson can only be saying that the Communist leaders may legitimately be jailed because their words and music embody the hope of insurrection on some distant day . . .

We prefer to stand with Justice Douglas' wiser words: "Free speech—the glory of our system of government—should not be sacrificed to anything less than plain and objective proof of danger that the evil advocated is imminent."

No decision could be less American in spirit than that of the court majority. It will damage the democratic cause at home and abroad far more than it will inconvenience the Communists . . .

The judges could have affirmed our national pride and confidence in our free institutions. Instead, they displayed the timidity of Scared politicians . . .

But now the court has given its blessing to heresy-hunting. Henceforth, men's minds may be searched—for "intent" and for daydreams. Never was it more vital for Americans who value their liberties to speak up against repression.

 

On Arbitration


Today, Hawaiian employers will have nothing to do with arbitration. In former years it was different. Late in 1907, when a dispute arose between the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA-AFL) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co., the company offered arbitration and the union at first turned it down. Later the MEBA agreed to arbitrate the wage dispute.

 

Divide, Conquer Days

"At Oahu plantation a few days ago, we are informed that the Japs got ugly and eventually assaulted Manager , Ahrens, who is laid up with an injured leg. Our correspondent states that the attitude of the Japs was very threatening, and that Manager Ahrens would have been killed if the Portuguese laborers had not appeared on the scene and, taking the part of their employer, knocked the Japs out."

—The Independent, Dec. 11, 1897

 

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Demand To Disqualify Self Made McLaughlin By Five Defendants

Affidavits of "bias and prejudice,'' asking Judge J. Frank McLaughlin to disqualify himself in the "conspiracy" trials, were filed this week by five of the seven defendants. The five were Jack Hall, ILWU. regional director; Charles Fujimoto, chairman of the Communist Party; Dr. John Reinecke, former school teacher; Jack Kimoto of the Hawaii Star, and Koji Ariyoshi, editor of the Honolulu RECORD.

Hall's affidavit, filed Monday, alleges bias by the judge against the ILWU and against the 39 local persons who were acquitted of contempt of Congress charges after they had refused to answer questions of the un-American Activities Committee here. Hall was one of the 39. Hall cited statements by Judge McLaughlin before a group of aliens being naturalized, in which the judge referred to "labor leaders who refuse to state whether or not they are members of the Communist Party."

Hit Pauling

Fujimoto's affidavit, filed on Wednesday with the remaining three by Bouslog & Symonds, attorneys who also represent Hall, alleges that McLaughlin showed bias, by endorsing the views of Justice Robert H. Jackson on Communist aims, and by his expression in favor of the banning of a speech by Dr. Linus Pauling at the University of Hawaii because of his participation in organizations on the U. S. attorney general's list of "subversive" organizations.

Dr. Reinecke charges that McLaughlin showed bias by condemning as "one-sided" a pre-

sentation of "Current Trends In Russia" in 1946 at the University of Hawaii by the Hawaii Youth for Democracy, for which Dr. Reinecke acted as advisor. Ariyoshi and Kimoto allege McLaughlin is biased toward then; because of their connection with the Hawaii Star and the Honolulu RECORD because of the coverage of those papers of the incident in which McLaughlin approved the! banning of Dr. Pauling's speech.

Bouslog & Symonds said no affidavits from the other two defendants, James Dwight Freeman, construction foreman, and Mrs. Eileen Fujimoto are anticipated.

 

Strauss Denies Pair Beaten; Palakiko Tells of Blows, Guard Backs Him Up

Captain Leon M. Strauss, chief of detectives of the Honolulu police department, took the stand this week as a government witness after the Territorial supreme court denied a motion by Assistant Attorney General Michiro Watanabe to dismiss the writ of habeas corpus for John Palakiko, 24, and James E. Majors, 25.

The assistant attorney general asked that the two men who were convicted of the murder of Mrs. Therese Wilder be remanded to Oahu Prison for execution. The court denied this motion and another to strike out testimony that Majors was beaten in the Salvation Army boys' home and at the Waialee boys training school. Denies Seeing Cuts

Captain Strauss denied that Palakiko was beaten, that he was bleeding above his left eye when questioned by the officer because of alleged beatings by former Detective Vernal Stevens. Captain Strauss also denied that he saw cuts on Palakiko's face.

Earlier in the hearings, Palakiko took the stand and testified that he was beaten by Officer Jack King and for 15 to 20 minutes in the "sound-proof" room by Detective Stevens.

Prior to being taken to the., "sound-proof room," he said he was hit in the stomach by Stevens and when he tried to get away he ran smack into another blow which spun him around and caused him to hit the corner of a frame of a map. This cut opened a wound above his left eye and he wiped the blood with his shirt, which he stripped off, he testified.

Captain Strauss' absolute denial of police brutality to get a confession from Palakiko came about a week after Captain Eugene Kennedy of the police force testified that he had noticed "something" over Palakiko's eye and it looked like a scar. He did not think there was "anything significant about it." Captain Kennedy denied that be had made a statement appearing in the Honolulu Advertiser to the effect that Palakiko had been held in solitary confinement at Oahu Prison from March 12 to 21, 1948. He said, contrary to the story, lie knew Palakiko was in police custody between March 12 and 17. He also denied making other statements appearing in the dailies during that time.

"Didn't Look So Good" Joseph Gonsalves, ex-guard at Oahu Prison, testified that when Palakiko was taken to the police station on March 20, he "saw no cut or scratches on his face." Gonsalves said that when he saw Palakiko after the police questioning at the police station, Palakiko's "head was hanging down, his shirt was off and two detectives were dragging him along. He didn't look so good."

Dr. Prescott S. Irwin, Honolulu physician, took the stand as an expert witness and testified that "I can't think of any circumstances under which I would give anybody four grains" of phenobarbetal.

Queen's Hospital records show that Majors was given four grains of this sedative. Majors testified that he was "dopey" and "drowsy" when he was being questioned by police officers. He had been taken to the hospital for treatment after he drank a bottle of iodine immediately after his arrest.

Majors said he did not want to return to Oahu Prison. During his testimony he told the court that he was placed in the Salvation Army home when he was 9 or 10 years old. At the home, he escaped several times. When he was captured after his first escape, he was given five strap lashes by an officer of the home. Every offence brought five more lashes and he said he received up to 45. When the police beat him after one escape, he reported this to the officials of the home and was given a strapping for this also, he testified.

"I still carry the marks on my back," he said.

Both Palakiko and Majors said that they did not know their legal rights when they were being held in police custody, questioned by the officers and signed the confessions.

 

Editorial Comment

A LESSON FROM THE JUDGE

The sooner Police Chief Dan Liu realizes that police brutality is every bit as serious an offense as police dishonesty, the better it will be for the people of Honolulu. The better it will be for the department's own record of efficiency, too, and the more respect the public will feel for police officers as public servants.

Last week, Judge Kenneth E. Young heard a case in which police beat a man—whom they had arrested illegally, and whose house they had searched illegally—and he spoke words that should have given Chief Liu food for serious thought.

The fact that the chief, instead, chose to indulge in an intemperate outburst against the judge's words need not prevent him, even yet, from using the criticism constructively to give Honolulu better police service—minus the beating of its lower income residents.

Likewise, Chief Liu would do well to instruct his officers, especially those on the vice squad, that under the American Constitution the poor man is entitled to the same treatment as the rich. As Judge Young pointed out, the search which vice squad officers carried out at the Kalihi home of Francisco Dela Cruz, and which led to his protest, arrest and beating, would hardly have happened at the Edgewater Hotel in Waikiki.

Censuring the police who beat up Dela Cruz and put him in the hospital for opposing an illegal search of his home, Judge Young said: "Such actions cannot be condoned."

By his hot, hasty reply, Chief Liu implies that he does condone rough stuff by his officers, and there is other evidence to indicate that this is true. Similar cases, proved in court to the satisfaction of Judges, have gone unpunished in the police department.

Yet, in money matters Chief Liu is known as a strict disciplinarian. The case of the motorcycle patrolmen who were disciplined for receiving gratuities from undertaking parlors has been well publicized, and it is a matter of record that officers have been suspended for irregularities involving comparatively small amounts.

But officers—Shaffer, Faria and Takabayashi, to name a few—cited again and again for violence and conduct unbecoming any public servant, go unpunished and are even promoted.

The discrepancy can only mean that Chief Liu regards the offense of violence against the public as not so serious after all.

Yet police violence is a serious matter from a standpoint of police efficiency, as well as from the public viewpoint.

But Chief Liu calls it "a grave disservice to the public and police" that any word of Judge Young's might in some far-fetched way be interpreted as meaning that an officer might suffer bodily harm while carrying out an illegal search or making an illegal arrest. The whole picture indicates that Chief Liu expects Judge Young and the public to overlook one of the most fundamental tenets of American law—that a man's home is his castle, to be defended as such against any illegal intruder, be he policeman or burglar.

Chief Liu could better spend his time curbing his quick-fisted vice squad than penning press releases berating a courageous judge.

 

Haw'n Dredging Man Admits Changes In Sewer Plan; Ichinose Charges 'Deal'

No one mentioned a total figure at the supervisors' public works committee meeting Friday, but it appeared that repairs and completion of the Ala Moana force main might cost taxpayers more than anyone has thus far publicly estimated.

The $53,000 appropriated for repairs to the main, broken by some allegedly unknown means last January, is wholly to be paid by the city. This was finally made clear. Before, it had been stated that half this cost would be assumed by the Hawaiian Dredging Co., which has the contract. Cost Unnamed

But E. C. Gray, chief engineer for the company, appearing before the board, named no figure for the work his company will do. Instead, he said the company is willing to assume the obligation of putting the dislodged links back into position. It is not willing to purchase any tile, should it develop that some links have been lost or damaged beyond repair. That expense, as well as the cost of new precautionary measures, must be borne by the city.

Pressed by Supervisors Trask, Teves and Ichinose for a figure on the probable cost of. that work, Gray would not commit himself. The figure of $20,000 as an estimate was mentioned but not substantiated.

Alterations Bared Queries, especially from Ichinose, as to the cause of the original break, brought no further move toward placing the responsibility, though Gray admitted substitutions were made in several pertinent parts of the specifications set by Metcalf & Eddy, who drew the original plans. These substitutions included:

1. Change in the type of backfill.

2. Change in the type of rock fill.

3. Change in cradles to hold the links.

Another element which might have contributed to the shift which broke the line was that the pile-drivers ran into mud where they expected to find sand, Gray admitted.

Didn't Like Flan

"We did not like the Original , plan," Gray said, but said no objections were ever put in writing and the plan was accepted after the "alterations" had been made. Earlier in the meeting, Ichinose accused Engineer Sinclair and the company of making a "deal" into which supervisors were not called.

Gray denied any "deal" and said "There was no collusion." but later Sinclair said, speaking of the unpublicized alterations, "We got together and worked these things out." Supervisor James Trask, whose questions largely resulted in the appearance of Gray at Friday's meeting, repeatedly opposed a $24,000 extra appropriation Sinclair asked for unforeseen expenses.

Trask Blocks Addition

"I want to know where that $24,000 is going," Trask said. "I want to know how it is going to be spent."

The engineer, after arguing that this appropriation would provide funds for quick movement, should that be necessary when the $53,000 had run out, finally said: "I can't steal a nickel."

Gray said it is important that work be resumed since some of the links of the sewer are loose on the ocean bottom and may be washed out to sea if the delay continues. It has been four months since repair operations were halted pending further appropriations.

It was agreed the $24,000 appropriation would be held up pending further information.

 

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Longshore Pres. Is Guest of San Pedro Women's Auxil.

By Helen Robello

San Pedro —A reception and luncheon were given by the ILWU Women's Auxiliary Local 8 of Los Angeles, honoring Joseph Kealalio, president of Honolulu Local 136, International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union.

Subject of Mr. Kealalio's talk was the relationship of the women's auxiliary to the men's local. It is the duty of one of the officials to attend each auxiliary meeting to bring back a report to the executive board so that the program of work can be coordinated between the auxiliary and the local.

Mr. Kealalio, who came from Honolulu to attend the San Francisco ILWU caucus, spent three days in San Pedro observing working conditions on the waterfront before returning to Honolulu.

 

Hawaiian Oligarchy

Sugar plantations in early days were reluctant to enter into written contracts with their cane-planting contractors. Four hundred Japanese at Onomea in January 1908 demanded written contracts in place of the oral contracts which ,had been in force, but the plantation didn't want to set such a precedent.

The joint congressional committee on the economic report estimates productivity has gone up 7 per cent in the last three years.

Output per manhour has increased at a rate averaging "in excess of 2 per cent a year" since 1929, according to the Commerce Department.

 

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THE LEGAL STAND FOR PALAKIKO AND MAJORS

The convictions and death sentences of John Palakiko and James E. Majors for the murder of Mrs. Therese Wilder are void on four constitutional grounds, according to the brief filed by Attorney Harriet Bouslog of Bouslog and Symonds in the current hearings going on before the Territorial supreme court.

She requests that the court set aside the sentences, remand the two for a new trial or for further proceedings according to law.

Attorney Bouslog also contends that Section 11393, Revised Laws of Hawaii, under which the two men were convicted for first degree murder, is unconstitutional because conviction can be brought for murder "without premeditation."

Cites Ruling On Confession

In the brief it is contended that confession was procured from Palakiko by the police only after he had been beaten, following police questioning of about five days. Majors, who was in Queen's Hospital, was subjected to continued interrogation by police officers, the brief says.

Among the legal precedents cited to support the contention that confessions taken in such a manner are inadmissible in court, the brief quotes from the U. S. Supreme Court ruling on Liang Sung Wan vs. United States, which says in part:

"... In the Federal courts, the requisite of voluntariness is not satisfied by establishing merely that the confession was not induced by a promise or a threat. A confession is voluntary in law if and only if, it was, in fact, voluntarily made . . . None of the five statements introduced by the government as admissions or confessions was made until after Wan had been subjected for seven days to the interrogation. The testimony given . . . left no room for a contention that the statements of the defendant were, in fact, voluntary." Both Palakiko and Majors were further denied due process of law because of the circumstances under which their confessions were taken, the brief alleges.

T. H. Laws Violated

While Sections 10705 and 10709 of the Revised Laws of Hawaii, 1945, authorize the police to make arrests on suspicion without warrants, no one can be held for more than 48 hours without being charged.

The police held Palakiko in custody from March 12 to March 17, 1948, and again from March 20 to 26, at which time he was charged with second degree murder, having been turned over for interrogation by the warden of the prison.

The brief says that "No provision of law permits the warden to turn prisoners over to the police or authorizes him to permit prisoners committed to him by order of court to remain in the custody of others."

"Usual Police Procedure" Violation

On the matter of arrest and police custody, the affidavit says:

"The provisions of Section 10705, coupled with the provision of 10709, subparagraph (5) of the Revised Laws of Hawaii, 1945, purport to authorize police officers in any seaport or town to arrest persons on suspicion, without a warrant, when they do not even know an offense has been committed, and to hold them for 48 hours, within which time they must either charge or release persons so arrested."

"Palakiko." Attorney Bouslog says in the brief, "was recaptured on March 12, 1948, after his escape from Oahu Prison, and was unlawfully held by the Honolulu Police Department until March 17, 1948, when he was returned to the Oahu Prison ... On the evening of March 20, 1948, four officers of the Honolulu Police Department removed him from Oahu Prison . . .

"He was held until March 26. 1948, by the Honolulu Police Department and the questioning continued at least through the 24th of March . . .

"Palakiko's unlawful detention by the Honolulu Police Department from March 12, 1948 to March 17, 1948, was effectively concealed from the jury and court at the trial."

On the recapture and custody of Majors, the brief says that he was arrested shortly after midnight March 21. He was taken to the Kaneohe Emergency Hospital for treatment, since he had drunk a bottle of iodine, then to Queen's Hospital.

The affidavit continues: "He was kept under sedative drugs during the time he was in Queen's Hospital, from Sunday, March 21, 1948, through March 24, 1948. He was then held at the Honolulu Police Department from March 24, 1948, through March 26, 1948, when he was returned to Oahu Prison."

Arrested persons, the brief further contends, are required by Territorial law to be brought before the district magistrate by police officers, "whether it be forthwith or within forty-eight hours." Sections 6809, 10709 and 10774. Revised Laws of Hawaii, 1945, are cited in support of this point.

Attorney Bouslog says in the brief that "Palakiko and Majors were not indicted until May 6, 1948, and were not taken before any court or magistrate until May 7, 1948."

On "illegal detention," the brief cites as precedent Upshaw vs. United States, where the Supreme Court rejected confession obtained after the accused had been held for 30 hours. To the prosecution argument that this procedure, was "usual police procedure," the Supreme Court had said:

"The argument was made to the trial court that this method of arresting, holding and questioning people on mere suspicion was in accordance with 'usual police procedure' of questioning a suspect . . . However usual this practice, it is in violation of law, and confessions thus obtained are inadmissible under the McNabb rule. (Another case also cited in the brief.) We adhere to that rule."

Provisions of Section 10709, Revised Laws of Hawaii, 1945, were also denied Palakiko and Majors, the brief points out. This section, the brief says, "makes it unlawful to deny to the person arrested for examination the right of seeing, at reasonable intervals and for a reasonable time at the place of his detention, counsel or a member of such arrested person's family ... or in event the arrested person has requested to see family or counsel, to examine the person so arrested until ha has had a. fair opportunity to see and consult with counsel or family."

As to age education and knowledge of one's constitutional rights during police questioning, the brief cites among others, Haley vs. Ohio. This was the case of a 15-year-old boy who was arrested about midnight on a charge of murder and questioned by a relay of police. He signed a typewritten confession and later protested when it was submitted in evidence. He was convicted.

On Knowledge of Rights

When this case was appealed to the Supreme Court, the high tribunal held, that:

"The age of petitioner, the hours when he was grilled, the duration of his quizzing, the fact that he had no friend or counsel to advise him, the callous attitude of the police towards his rights combine to convince us that this was a confession wrung from a child by means which the law should not sanction. Neither man nor child can he allowed to stand condemned by methods which flout constitutional requirements of the process of law."

The court replied to the argument that the defendant had been informed of his constitutional rights before signing the confession in these words: ". . . Moreover, we cannot give any weight) to recitals which merely formalize constitutional requirements. Formulas of respect for constitutional safeguards cannot prevail over the facts of life which contradict them."

Right of Counsel

As to denial of counsel, the brief argues that the Sixth Amendment provides for right of counsel at all stages of criminal proceedings, but Palakiko and Majors were denied! such right during preliminary hearing. Their defense attorneys were appointed by the court four days before the case began, and they were to prepare a case which had taken the prosecution from March 16 to May 6, 1948, only for presentation to the grand jury. It "seems doubtful" that the counsel for Palakiko and Majors had adequate opportunity to consult with the two men, who were in Oahu Prison, In preparing for the trial, the brief says.

In Powell vs. Alabama, a case cited in the brief, the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of four defendants on a charge of rape on the ground that there was no effective appointment of counsel. The court said that the "circumstance of public hostility," the fact that "their friends and families were all in other states," and "above all, that they stood in deadly peril of their lives— we think the failure of the trial court to give them reasonable time and opportunity to secure counsel was a clear denial of due process."

Release By Habeas Corpus

Again, in Johnson vs. Zorbst, also cited in the brief, the Supreme Court ruled:

"Since the Sixth Amendment constitutionally entitles one charged with crime to the assistance of counsel, compliance with this constitutional mandate is an essential jurisdictional prerequisite to a Federal court's authority to deprive an accused of his life or liberty . . . If this requirement of the Sixth Amendment is not complied with, the court no longer has jurisdiction to proceed. The judgment of conviction pronounced by a court without jurisdiction is void and one imprisoned thereunder may obtain release by habeas corpus."

The brief also alleges that Palakiko was questioned for 11 days and Majors for six days. Such interrogation produced a 21-page confession in Palakiko's case and a 42-page document in Maiors' rase, both "signed after a hasty reading."

Such a confession is also inadmissible in court, the counsel for the two alleges in the brief, and Attorney Bouslog cites Gros vs. United States where the Supreme Court says that Gros was "not taken before a committing magistrate" and was held in "illegal imprisonment" for "over five days and in a cell." Furthermore, the questioning "spread over five days" produced "the 4,000-word document signed after a hasty reading." The high court said it is forbidden as agencies of justice and custodians of liberty to permit "conviction upon evidence secured under the circumstances revealed here."

Constitutionality of Law Raised

The constitutionality of Section 11393, Revised Laws of Hawaii, 1945, is raised in the brief on the ground that it authorized a conviction for murder in the first degree "without premeditation." This section defines murder in the first degree, as charged in the third count of the indictment against Palakiko and Majors, that "murder committed . . . with extreme atrocity or cruelty is murder in the first degree."

"It is counsel's contention," Attorney Bouslog says, "that it is impossible to define these terms with exactitude; that these words make the statute so vague and ambiguous that the degree of murder is determined by the passions and feelings of the court, the prosecutors and the members of the Jury, rather than the legislature."

In Winters vs. New York, the brief says, the Supreme Court of the United States held a statute of New York State unconstitutional for vagueness and indefinite-ness. In this case the court ruled that "The crime must be defined with appropriate definiteness. There must be ascertainable standards of guilt. Men of common intelligence cannot be required to guess at the meaning of the enactment ..."

Premeditation Lacking

Pointing to the unconstitutionally of Section 11393, Attorney Bouslog says in the brief that:

"When premeditation is lacking, our legislature has ordained that the highest degree of cruelty or atrocity only can substitute for premeditation. To one jury, torture or dismemberment might seem within the scope of this language; to another, poison causing great pain. Where any statute leaves to the temper of the jury in a given case the determination of its meaning, it provides no ascertainable standard, and is therefore void." The so-called 48-hour law which supplied the opportunity for police to use coercion against Palakiko and Majors while they were detained "illegally" and to wrest from them the alleged confessions conflicts with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which guarantees one from unwarranted arrests and seizure, Attorney Bouslog says.

"The seizing of the person on mere suspicion and putting him under the duress of imprisonment for the sole purpose of coercing him into being a witness against himself, as the statute purports to authorize," and as happened in the Palakiko-Majors case, "is surely an even more fundamental denial of security of the person" than the seizing of any papers, the brief contends.

"This patently unconstitutional law furnished the only color of justification for the detention for investigation of Palakiko and Majors for the murder of which they were convicted," the brief says, and the denial of security of their persons guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment can only be effectively remedied by habeas corpus.

 

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Gadabout

A fair sized cache of heroin was unearthed, the grapevine has it. when addicts forced its custodian into an automobile, drove him out to Koko Head and threatened to kill him unless he produced. The dealer, who had stashed the stuff away until the traffic "cooled off" around here, was convinced that it would be healthier for him to kick in and he did, though he was still fearful because of the heightened activity of narcotics agents here.

* *

More stories of "fixes" in high school football are coming to light but they can't be proved unless the participants take a notion to tell in court and few, if any are likely to do that. One involves a coach, paid by a businessman to shave points off the score he might run up, who changed his mind and broke the businessman who had been a close friend. When the bettor sent a note to the coach to find out whether the "fix" was still on, the note went to the wrong party. That person, not recognizing the semi-code language, crumpled it and threw it on the ground.

* *

Police had the six men charged with burglary last week, under surveillance for a long time before they made the arrests, it is believed, though without very much direct evidence. The hunt settled on one of the sextet in earnest when he purchased a Buick automobile, though he had not been engaged in his usual traffic for some time. It is also believed that the total amount stolen in the 16 burglaries well exceeds the published $4,000 figure.

* *

If she hadn't got the run-around from C-C Engineer Karl Sinclair last week, Mrs. Moses Ome told the public works committee Friday, she wouldn't have come back. She wants to know when the C-C bureau of plans expects to have some opinion on the feasibility of a Moomuku subdivision. Sinclair refused to give her an answer lost week, she said, claiming the question is "administrative" and implying it's none of a taxpayer's business. Harold Butzine, chief of the bureau, said he thinks it will take about three weeks to gather the necessary data, and Mrs. Ome thanked him. That was all she hoped for in the first place, she said, and she would be back when three weeks are up.

* *

Hong Kong real estate is going down, say seamen returning from the Orient, and the price of eggs is up. Seamen observe that English officials at Hong Kong are far less arbitrary and dictatorial than they were in the old days

* *

The Japanese people are in for a rough winter, returnees say. because of the coal shortage. Living continues extremely difficult for all those who depend upon wages or lower bracket salaries for their incomes, returning visitors report. Scandal of the moment in Tokyo is the exposure of the bathhouse operated by gangster Ujitoshi Konomi, and established with the approval of the government because it was to be for Tokyo's workers. Instead, it has been run as a high-priced amusement place, with scantily dressed girl attendants, patronized chiefly by diplomats and black marketers. With an evening's bill of $100 not unusual, few of Tokyo's workers ever saw the inside of the place. A GI who visited it said he got "the damnedest bath I ever had in my life."

* *

"Sashu suru " is defined by Sanseido's "New Concise Japanese-English Dictionary" this way: "To obtain by fraud; swindle; defraud; (U. S.) financier." The New Yorker contains this information under its standing head, "The Mysterious East." But what's so mysterious about that definition?

* *

"You're Under Arrest!" is the title of an article by Irwin Ross in November's "Pageant" that everyone should read, and especially Chief of Police Dan Liu. Ross tells of a recent roundup of 500 persons by the New York police— with only three convictions out of the lot. Ross describes the manner in which police beatings, usually unwarranted, tear down the confidence of people in the police. The author also gives a number of rules which may guide the inexperienced in dealing with police—especially when the officers may be overstepping their authority. Some of the most important are— "Get the badge number of any officer who attempts a search without a warrant"—"Get the badge number of any officer who. arrests without a warrant." Ross also points out that no one is legally required to answer any question asked by an officer. Name and address may be legally required, but Ross says anyone arrested is better off if he insists that (1) he be booked immediately so he may know the charges and (2) that he be allowed to communicate with his lawyer.

* *

The Nuimalu Hotel is the locale nowadays for the inner sanctum of C-C supervisors, an informed source says. It's quiet out there all day long, the explanation goes, and a wonderful place fop uninterrupted political intrigue.

* *

Two months ago the rumor was around and it's back again, so there must be something to it—that Gov. Long is considering appointing either Attorney Eugene Beebe or Baron Goto to the Hawaiian Homes Commission. The governor must know either appointment will get opposition from a number of Hawaiians, for the) rumor is usually accompanied by that kind of talk.

* *

More than one supervisor is thoroughly irritated with the manner in which C-C Engineer Karl Sinclair and a number of his subordinates "sit on" pertinent facts as if they were military secrets and the supervisors the enemy from which such information is to be guarded. Then he asks appropriations and has harsh words for the supervisors when they balk. * *

"Joe Rose looked to be in the best of health the last time I saw him," said one puzzled fan. "Funny he should have taken sick so suddenly."

 

"Dixie" Hotter On Hotel St. Than It Was In the South

Honolulu's newest entertainment venture opened last week on Hotel Street with the latest crew of vaudeville "artistes" showing in a repertoire of skits, hi-jinks, assorted dances and blackouts.

"Whitey" Jensen, long in show business here in Hawaii, is the local entrepreneur and doubles as lighting technician, floor manager, chief bottle washer and producer. We caught the first show along with the army, navy and marines, and the local civilian population who also gave the show the once over.

Four chorus girls cavorted around the converted stage of the former Chinese restaurant to the music of Professor Eddie Camara who for years has been playing the "carney" circuit.

The number done to Irving Berlin's "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" in which the four chorines appear met with especial approval of the front row of sailors out for a good time. Incidentally, the four lovelies answer to the names of Yvonne, Celia, Annette and Gloria. These girls also received about an equal amount of applause, but that night an enthusiastic marine showed more enthusiasm for Celia.

Comedian Jo Jo Jordon along with Jimmy MacFay and blonde Noma, carry on the hi-jinks and blackout skits. MacFay plays the straight man to the antics of Jo Jo, who works hard at the laughs. While we did not see anybody rolling in the aisles, the armed forces gave him a good send-off. The best skit, a blackout number called "Relief for the Poor," shows the team of Jordon and Noma with Jo Jo playing second fiddle to Noma and her garters. We said garters, not 'gators. Noma also did a Gay Nineties number to the tune of "Dixie." We always thought of Dixie as a march. Noma gave Dixie a lot of vibratto.

Several movie musical shorts complete the show. See you on Hotel Street.—Night Beat

 

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Filipinos Often Victims

Filipinos are often victims of police brutality, Attorney Myer C. Symonds pointed out, following Young's decision, in a letter to Police Chief Dan Liu.

Myer C. Symonds, partner in the law firm which represented Dela Cruz, wrote: "During the past few months, we have referred a number of cases of police brutality to you for attention, particularly with reference to Filipinos. In those cases in which there are no apparent markings on the victim, we are informed that the result of the investigation has shown no evidence to substantiate the charge. If the victim has markings, then we are notified that the police officer acted in self-defense."

He also wrote: "The foregoing observations have been made because the instant case is one in which there can be absolutely no justification for not disciplining the officers involved."

Symonds adds that Dela Cruz paid a $40 medical hill at Queen's Hospital as a result of the heating given him by the vice squad officers.

Dela Cruz was represented in the case by Attorney James King of Bouslog & Symonds.

 

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D. A. V.'s COMMENDABLE STAND

World War II veterans returned to their respective communities after their military service to participate in building more wholesome environments. They particularly saw the need of improvements when so many had to double up with friends and families and suffer inconveniences because housing was inadequate. This was merely one of their many wants.

The purchase of home and homesites was beyond the means of the great majority of veterans. A comparatively few took GI housing loans, but the number who can afford to buy houses under this plan is relatively small.

A great many of the veterans and their families turned to converted army and navy barracks, and emergency civilian cracker-box housing. Even here the waiting list was and is long, and with the war program going on again, some veterans are being evicted to make room for servicemen's families.

Construction of public housing would have alleviated this difficulty and inconvenience for veterans and their families, but the government ignored such crying need in almost every community in the United States.

Money spent in such a constructive effort would have postponed the depression just as effectively as the Korean war into which President Truman plunged this nation without congressional authority, at a time when all the earmarks of a depression were present—growing unemployment, high inventory, etc.

The big business-controlled government would not spend for housing, and continue the GI education program and other programs for veterans, in full force, but laid the groundwork for rearmament spending that now runs into $70 billion. The profits from such a war program go to big business. The tax bite to finance such a program hurts small wage earners the most, while exemptions and tax amortization further help to line the pockets of war profiteers.

In order to finance such a war program, now the government is economizing on spending for general welfare. Thus we find the public housing administration authorized by the Lanham Act to increase rents in veterans' housing 20 per cent beginning December 1.

On the Mainland, veterans are protesting this rent increase at a time when the cost of living is mounting.

Locally, the Disabled American Veterans on Oahu have taken a commendable stand. They are not only opposing rent increases but are asking for reduction of rentals in veterans' housing units of from $6 to $8 per unit. This is fair and proper.

The DAV resolution says in part, that the buildings were constructed at a low standard. It mentions Manoa housing as being typical of housing for veterans on Oahu. It further points out that the housing units were to have yielded the Federal government a 100 per cent return on its investment within the five-year period which ended May 11, 1950.

There is still time for veterans' organizations and individual veterans to protest this unjustified increase. Why should veterans pay higher rentals on housing that was all paid for a year and a half ago? Why take from the veterans and give to war profiteers.

 

Looking Backward

Bloodshed in Lahaina:

III. President Roosvelt's Warning

Perhaps the unnamed Japanese laborer shot down by police at Lahaina on May 20, 1905, did not die in vain. Present at Lahaina toward the end of the strike was Commissioner C. P. Neill of the U. S. Department of Commerce and Labor, who speedily prepared a report for President Theodore Roosevelt himself. Fewer Safeguards of Law for Japanese Workers

On June 16, Roosevelt wrote to William H. Taft, then Secretary of War, calling his attention to Mr. Neill's memorandum. "I suggest," wrote the President, "that you have a copy of it sent to Governor Carter and another to the commander of the Federal troops in Hawaii, warning them of the extreme care with which they should behave. Also, when you stop at Hawaii, will you take the matter up with Governor Carter and with the colonel in command of our troops, and go over it most carefully?

"I call your special attention to that phrase of Mr. Neill's letter where he speaks of finding on the part of the officers of the law a very distinct impatience with those forms of law which hamper summary action on the part of police and militia, and of the feeling which he asserts exists that the safeguards of the law for the protection of the individual citizen need not be so carefully observed in dealing with Japanese laborers. This is a very important matter."

And what was the report that called for the personal attention of the President of the United States and the man who was to succeed him in that office?

"Japs Must Be Taught a Lesson"

"Recent developments in Hawaii," wrote Neill, "have given a peculiar turn to labor conditions which, if not carefully handled, might necessitate explanations on the part of Federal authorities to the Japanese government.

"On most of the plantations the labor force is so overwhelmingly Japanese that this nationality now completely controls the labor situation. The Japanese laborers realize this, and are becoming more aggressive and self-assertive in their dealings with their employers . . ." (Here follows an account of the strike and bloodshed.)

"Both the plantation interests and the police authorities of the Territory are anxious to check this growing aggressiveness on the part of the Japanese. In some quarters the expression is heard that 'These Japs must be taught a lesson'—the lesson in mind being of the kind that the militia can best teach. I was present at the more serious strike above referred to and found on the part of the officers of the law a very distinct impatience with those forms of law that hamper summary action on the part of police and militia. There seemed to be the feeling that those safeguards which the law sets up for the protection of the individual citizen need not be so carefully observed in dealing with Japanese laborers."

Since the legislature had not made an appropriation for the National Guard, it seemed likely that when labor trouble next arose, the governor would have to call upon Federal troops.

Advertiser Called for Companies of Troops in 1909

"In view of the desire felt in many quarters to 'teach the Japs a lesson,' it is probable that the Federal troops would be called out on the slightest provocation. In the event of a strike, the entire body of the strikers will be Japanese, and any indiscreet action on the part of the troops would probably lead to complications with the Japanese government.

"This is especially likely at the present time, since the Japanese in Hawaii have begun a movement to demand the recall of their consul for not properly protecting their interests, and should they effect a change, the next consul might prove over-zealous in protecting their rights as subjects of the Japanese government.

". . . The situation is not one requiring merely formal treatment. Sagacity, discretion, and very level-headed judgment will be important requisites in handling situations that are likely to develop."

It is possible that Commissioner Neill's warning, emphasized by President Roosevelt and Secretary Taft, had some effect when the big strike of 1909 broke out on Oahu. Feeling ran high then, and there was much temptation to "teach these Japs a lesson."

The Advertiser called for a company of troops to be stationed on every large Oahu plantation. But, in this strike, searches, arrests and convictions on the most doubtful legal grounds were the weapons used against the strike leaders. There was no "Hanapepe massacre" or "Bloody Monday," or even a repetition of the shooting at Lahaina.

 

Frank-ly Speaking

By Frank Marshall Davis

A Council is Born

A couple of weeks ago I wrote in these columns of the founding convention of the National Negro Labor Council scheduled for Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 27 and 28, and said that what happened there could easily have an effect on the kaleidoscopic peoples of Hawaii.

The convention was an outstanding success. It was a success despite the desperate efforts of the CIO and stooges for reaction to red-bait it out of existence. The Cincinnati press and police, taking their cue from opponents of the movement, were contemptuous and suspicious as sessions opened but by the second day the attitude had completely changed. Reporters softened and sat spellbound by what they heard and saw; police held up traffic and ushered delegates across the street.

CIO Sold Minorities Down the River

What caused this change? Simply the sincerity and determination of those present to work intelligently together until the rotten conditions of oppression, which cripple all non-white peoples throughout the world, are removed. The 1,500 delegates cited instance after instance of discrimination and terror as the result of white supremacy, and vowed to stand together until they had fought their way out of the wilderness.

This spirit is what made the CIO and the stooges for reaction fight the convention. It is an open secret that the bankrupt national CIO leadership has sold the Negro and all other minorities down the river. The CIO, riding the Truman coattails, agreed, off the record, to soft-pedal its backing of civil rights legislation in exchange for wiping out or materially changing the Taft-Hartley law. Thus we have no new civil rights laws—and Taft-Hartley is still on the books.

Despite its sellout, the CIO is still trying to hang onto its prestige among working people and minorities. For that reason any movement geared to labor which cannot be controlled by the CIO hierarchy will be fought by the Murrays and Reuthers and Rieves. And this new National Negro Labor Council will be controlled neither by Truman nor the national CIO.

Strong Base Among the Organized and Unorganized

But the new group does have a strong base in the CIO, just as it does in AFL, independents and unorganized workers: The national president is William R. Hood, Detroit, secretary of Ford Local 600, UAW-CIO, biggest local in the nation; director of organization is Ernest Thompson of New Jersey, United Electrical Workers, Ind.; a vice president-at-large is James Husbands of Durham, N. C., of Local 208, Tobacco Workers International Union, AFL. Other officers are drawn from unions throughout the nation.

One of those taking a key part in the founding convention was Joe Johnson, port agent in California for the Marine Cooks and Stewards, who visited here in the Spring of '49. Hitting at critics of the new group, he said:

"Those who label us communistic every time we open our mouths to gain our rights don't know the difference between communism and rheumatism and know little about either. The darker peoples of the world want to choose their own kind of government and their own leaders. It makes me mad as hell for our administration to give away millions to maintain the rulers of their choice in colonial and European countries and don't want to give me my unemployment insurance!"

And if you somehow have the idea that Paul Robeson no longer has a following, here are the words of one of the women delegates. Pearl Laws, furriers' leader from New York. Condemning the withdrawal of Robeson's passport by the state department, she brought down the house when she said:

"We women will stretch ourselves across the ocean and let Paul walk across on our back's."

White Man Being Tested All Over

There were white delegates, too, who came to join with colored workers in the struggle for equality Their chief spokesman was Maurice E. Travis of Denver, of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, who had lost an eye fighting against white supremacy. Condemning the patronizing attitude of many whites in the labor movement, he said:

"I think it is about time that white workers and their leaders registered a fact of life. It is time for them to understand that all over the world, the white man is being tested. Millions of people in Asia, Africa, South America, the Pacific, axe taking a close look to see if the white man means what he says when he talks about democracy and equality."

Resolutions passed by the convention extended brotherhood "to all oppressed people everywhere" and urged unity with Puerto Rican and Mexican minorities in the U. S.; urged an end to the war program and a five-power peace meeting with Russia and China; an end to discrimination in public and private housing and construction of a minimum of 250,000 low-rent housing units annually; the establishment of youth committees to work on the specific problems of the young; a campaign for a million signatures demanding a Federal FEPC; the opening up of 100,000 new jobs in lily-white industry, and the bringing of the plight of agricultural workers before the entire trade union movement.

Program Will Benefit All

The civil rights resolution also demanded the dropping of indictments against Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois and William L. Patterson of CRC, restoration of Paul Robeson's passport, unconditional release of Mrs. Rosa Lee Ingram, repeal of the Smith and McCarran Acts, ending of discrimination in the armed forces and all government agencies, the granting of reasonable bail and "the right to speak for and advocate peace without, fear of intimidation and coercion."

That's the program of the new National Negro Labor Council. If it succeeds, it will benefit everybody in Hawaii.