Serrao Fights Smear Attack

Seeks Letters By Political Foe To Federal Officials

If he ever gets possession of copies of certain letters written about him, Secretary of Hawaii Frank. G. Serrao has told friends, he will sue the writer or writers for $100,000, so violently does he object to the smear tactics used by those who opposed his appointment to his present position.

While Serrao will make no statement, the RECORD has learned from authoritative sources that the Secretary is still making efforts to secure copies of the letters, which were sent to Washington. He is reported to have made arrangements here with one of the recent official visitors from Washington to have copies of the allegedly libellous letters sent to him.

In one of the letters, report has it, the writer confused Mr. Serrao's name with that of another man, also a native of the Big Island, with an entirely different background.

Although it is not known whether the error was intentional or not, the reference is reported to have been used in an effort to convince Washington officials that Serrao was not worthy of the position to which he was later appointed.

Another libellous statement Serrao's opponents are reported to have written to Washington was one drawing allegedly incorrect and unfair conclusions from the fact that he was not a member of the armed forces during World War II.

Although it is impossible at this time to name the writer or writers who may face legal action from Serrao, those names come from the list of those who either opposed his appointment, or those who opposed his policies when ha was Territorial land commissioner.

Peyton Harrison, executive director of the Hawaii Aeronautics Commission, is seen by Territorial observers as the person most likely to take the rap for the huge, unauthorized expenditures at the Kahului airport, now admitted by the commission to total $87,958. Mr. Harrison has the responsibility, it is pointed out, of halting unauthorized expenditures, and those who have followed recent HAC hearings say William Neilson, Kahului airport manager, has done much to clear himself by his possession of proper vouchers, requisitions, etc. But as commissioners have stated again and again in open hearings, the real moving force behind the Kahului expenditures is Commissioner Harold W. Race. That being true, Mr. Harrison may haver had little choice, from a political viewpoint, in ignoring the mounting bills at Kahului.

Prom Iolani Palace this week, the RECORD learned that Mr. Rice was also a strong supporter of Harrison when the retired rear admiral, then serving as Gov. Stainback's "naval attache," sought) the director's job.

Mr. Harrison made a quick trip to Maui, the story goes, following his return from Washington where he had accompanied Stainback. Shortly afterward, Rice was campaigning for Harrison as director. "Commission members were led to believe," says an HAC source, "that the governor wanted Harrison for the job."

Stainback Surprised When the commission thereafter voted for the appointment of Mr. Harrison, no one was more surprised than Stainback.

"It wasn't that he opposed the appointment," says an informed source. "He just didn't care who they appointed. He felt it was the affair of the commission."

As for the Kahului expenditures, HAC talk has it that there's still another bill for $25,000 worth of pipe for the installation of permanent lights. But that can't be confirmed until the bill is presented to the commission.

Back when there was much political skirmishing to see who would be appointed Oahu County director of disaster relief, Russell K. Kono of the C-C attorney's office wrote an opinion to the effect that the position should come under civil service. The opinion was backed up by C-C Attorney Wilford Godbold.

The opinion created a certain hubbub because John A. Burns, Chairman of the Democratic county committee, was foremost among applicants for the position. Prevailing thinking at the time was that such political activity would be impossible for the disaster relief director. But Burns got the job and no strong objection was ever voiced against his political activity, so he has continued as Democratic county chairman.

But now, in December, Acting C-C Attorney Prank McKinley has written another opinion, conflicting with Kono's. that Burns does not really belong under civil service because he is a deputy of Territorial disaster relief under Director William Cobb.

And that opinion has the concurrence of Attorney General Walter Ackerman.

"But is Burns really a deputy of Cobb?" asks a C-C official, "or is his superior, Engineer Karl Sinclair, really Cobb's deputy? Sinclair doesn't come under civil service, right enough, but his assistant does, and Burns is one of his assistants." And since the Federal government assists disaster relief by matching funds appropriated by the Territory, what of the Hatch Act? Does it apply to Burns?

Burns' political foes make little secret of the fact that they feel the later ruling is far from displeasing to Governor Long, who expects strong cooperation from the disaster relief director in reviving the Democratic Party.

Three out of four families in the U. S. own an automobile. Last year motorists traveled more than 465,000,000 miles over the nation's 3,000,,000-mile highway network.

The first modern court injunction against labor, requested in New York in 1880, was denied. One of the earliest granted was in Iowa, in 1884.

From Behind Barbed Wire To Idaho Farms

A sickness of fear and suspicion was taking hold of numerous people in Manzanar Relocation Center, a barbed wire compound a mile square, penning in 10,000 of us of Japanese ancestry. In April and May of 1942, when evacuees were crowded into the first relocation center, they sensed the presence of FBI informers among them.

Many aliens who were relieved because they had not been picked up by the FBI and separated from their families, feared that some stoolpigeon might be writing letters to the FBI that they had been active in Japanese churches, language schools, fencing and other organizations. And they expected FBI agents to reach into the barbed wire enclosure, pick them up and herd them away. The fear of the FBI was paralyzing to the aliens in the early week of our concentration. This was particularly so to those who had rushed into Manzanar, expecting that prolonged stay in Los Angeles would inevitably result in their arrest. Thus, they were extremely cautious.

Some of these men had been of some influence in the Japanese community in Los Angeles and by arriving at Manzanar as pioneers, they conveniently became instruments through which the Caucasian administrators dealt with evacuees. They thus occupied important positions in the new community. The Caucasian administrators apparently believed that in using the "pacifying" influence of these former leaders of the Japanese community, they would be able to run the camp smoothly.

While criticism was directed against people of Japanese ancestry as potentially subversive and "pro-Japan," it seemed more logical that Nisei would be put in positions of importance. It was not that the aliens were anti-U. S., but the mere fact that the Nisei were running the camp would have been proper in counteracting anti-evacuee propaganda of the press.

But as an assistant camp administrator told a few of us: "What the hell; you're all behind barbed wire anyway. It doesn't make any difference."

This person was a tail and husky lawyer who soon earned the reputation of being able to out-talk anyone in camp and he boasted and spread this information about himself. When the director, who formerly managed an Indian reservation, made a mistake or the camp administration had to go back on its promises to us, which it often did, this assistant director bullied, cajoled or argued 10,000 of us into accepting the administration's viewpoint. Lower down the echelon the administrator's Caucasian staff had healthier attitudes toward us.

Reign of Terror At Terminal Island

In Block 10 where I lived, the great majority of the residents were from Terminal Island. They were fishing people, i and the aliens had come from Wakayama in Japan, which is the native home of most of the immigrant fishermen on the West Coast and in Hawaii. Because Terminal Island was classed as strategic, the people of Japanese ancestry were given 30 days to evacuate the area not too long after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But one day the government issued an emergency order for them to clear out of their homes within 24 hours. Chaos followed, with families being forced to sell their possessions for almost nothing.

This forced removal followed a pre-dawn FBI raid on the Island's Japanese aliens, dramatized as almost all FBI raids are. This was indeed a reign of terror, and this is a mild statement.

If the FBI agents had walked up to the homes of people, knocked on doors gently and told aliens they were under arrest, the drama would have lacked headline and hysteria-creating qualities. The wee hours of the morning apparently lend to imagination, with FBI agents yelling and pounding on doors, and rushing into bedrooms, flashing badges and giving orders to frightened women and to crying and horrified children.

Precedents That Have Robbed People of Rights

This kind of behavior by G-men prevailed during the Palmer raids, and it still is a tactic of the FBI, particularly during periods of repression. Once done, it gets repeated by emboldened agents, until an aroused people put a stop to such conduct that flouts the constitutional rights of the people in their faces.

In like manner, when Indians, who are the native Americans— robbed of their land and pauperized—are kept in government custody in reservations, it is a step not far removed to put 110,000 people of common ancestry behind barbed wire.

These are precedents that have robbed people of their rights and make it easier to take other similar steps. Thus, in January 1950, the Justice Department revealed that it has a program to) put 21,105 people behind bars or in concentration camps—people who would be hailed into court for their thinking and tried for their ideas.

Same Kind of Repressive Conduct

Raymond P. Whearty, the acting assistant attorney general, said that the 21,105 includes "persons who are active members of the Communist Party and similar organizations, or who appear (emphasis is mine—K. A.) to be acting in concert with Russian interests ..." A sweeping and dangerous generalization, no different from the concentration of 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry in 1942, ostensibly for security reasons, alleging that we were! potential saboteurs.

In Manzanar of 1942, a person identified as an FBI stoolpigeon was despised as a lowly creature. There was one person who told confidants he was keeping the FBI informed. One day he was sitting on the porch of a block leader's office. At that time, some evacuee laborers were delivering rolls of linoleum to the earlier occupied barracks and they stopped to leave a few rolls at the block office. My longshoreman friend from San Francisco was the block leader there and he told me later that one of the men heaved a roll that crashed through the porch flooring, not quite reaching where the suspected FBI informer sat. My friend said this seemed deliberate but the suspected person pretended not to notice the intention of the delivery man.

Many People Were On Edge

Too often the temper and mood of large groupings of evacuees were ugly and unpredictable. A small incident would excite a whole barracks or even a block. We learned through letters from the Santa Anita assembly center that a riot took place there when evacuees became incensed at an FBI suspect.

Shortly after my arrival, I worked on the Manzanar Free Press. A large staff of aspiring writers produced a weekly of two mimeographed sheets. One became exhausted trying to get an item in the paper with so many writing for it. Later on it became a four-page tabloid but by then I had left the staff, worked as a laborer clearing sage brush, and as a policeman. The police station was the center of almost all complaints and we knew practically everything that went on in camp. Still later I became a police postal Inspector, examining packages that came in. The Threat of Being Mobilized Into Labor Battalions

One day a labor recruiter for the Amalgamated Sugar Co. of Idaho came to Manzanar, looking for several hundred laborers to work in the sugar beet fields. He said manpower shortage was ruining crops. The response was very poor and only a few volunteered. The evacuees distrusted the government and there was good reason for this attitude. So many promises had been broken.

Because of the poor response an Issei spokesman for the camp administration addressed a mass meeting at night, called specifically to urge volunteers to go to Idaho. He intimidated the evacuees that if volunteer procedure failed, the government would draft us for labor battalions. This was already common talk.

Look Back To Contract Labor Days

During the day the labor recruiter talked to evacuees and he promised ideal working and living conditions, wholesale prices for groceries and the camp administration promised freedom to evacuees while they were in Idaho.

"No guards with bayonets?" we asked.

He said "No," but that this might result if labor battalions became a reality through lack of cooperation on our part.

I was concerned that evacuees might be used as migratory laborers, transported from one farm area to another, without adequate protection, and exploited as farm laborers in California. With hysteria whipped up against us, we would be at the mercy of white farmers.

It was depressing for me when I looked back over a period of 45 years, to the time when my parents had come to Hawaiian plantations as contract laborers. All the gains made since then by our people seemed to have been wiped away, even for the time being.

The Barbed Wire Enclosure Seemed To Give Protection

I asked the assistant camp director whether the War Relocation Authority would protect us.

"Can we return to Manzanar when the season is over or when the deal does not work out well?" I asked.

Ironically, I was asking him whether I could come back into the barbed-wire confinement.

He said to me: "Why do you want to come back here? The WRA will protect evacuees everywhere and at all times!"

"If we are mistreated or abused, would we be brought back here?" I kept asking. "It is safe here."

He told me not to worry, that the ground had been prepared for a favorable reception in Idaho. He said we would be pioneers, paving the way for relocation of evacuees.

Only 129 Volunteered from Manzanar

I read a contract and signed up. Because I was a policeman, the chief of police asked me to help the company recruiter in handling affairs of our men. There were only 129 of us volunteers.

We rode a bus to Reno where we were herded together like cattle, into a restaurant through the back door. The company recruiter apologized, saying that he wanted to avoid any unpleasant incident. We ate heartily, of the good food, for "freedom," even on a leash, after being penned up was refreshing.

During the train trip from Reno to Rupert, Idaho, an AJA from Hawaii, who had been a seaman, and I talked to the volunteers on the need of organizing ourselves. We told the men we needed a council to handle labor grievances, committees to do public relations and look after our community mess and other problems. Men like George Shibuya and Ben Masaoka, and several Hawaii-born Nisei, thought this was an excellent idea. For hours we circulated among the laborers and talked to them. But most of them were too full of the spirit of freedom and looked to the enjoyment in Rupert and other Idaho towns.

"Something Terrible Has Happened"

Then the train pulled into Rupert. I began to help unload baggage when Meno-san, a tall Issei, came running to me.

"Something terrible has happened!" he told me.

"Please come quick," he said and rushed back to the head of the train.

I followed and there I saw a one-armed sheriff standing in front of the evacuee volunteers with a disdainful look on his face. There was a strong smell of liquor on his breath and he was driveling as he growled from twisted lips. His hand played with his pistol holster.

"All you Japs will stay in the tent camp. You go out when the farmers come for you with their trucks. When they bring you home, you'll stay inside the fence!" he said, and his narrow frame swayed. He said he would not be responsible for vigilante activities.

The Recruiter Had Given Us Empty Promises

I asked a white farmer if there were any sugar company officials around. He pointed to a tall, handsome man and I went directly to him. This person was greatly relieved to be able to talk to one of us. He said he was Harry Elcock, the manager of the company in Idaho. He cautioned me not to get alarmed.

"We were promised freedom," I told Mr. Elcock, and that we had looked forward to that. I also told him that we were promised good working and living conditions, not pup tents.

He told me that the recruiter had been sent from the home office in Utah and did not know local conditions in Rupert, about pup-tents and fields overgrown with weeds.

"Japs Live Like Rats, Breed Like Rats"

Although Mr. Elcock tried to minimize alarm, he showed deep concern. He spoke candidly from the very first. He told me that Governor Chase Clark of Idaho had said only a few days before that the "Japs live like rats, breed like rats and act like rats." The governor had said he did not want any "Japs" in Idaho. A U. S. Employment Service representative who was in charge of the farm labor tent camp said the governor had advocated dumping all "Japs" back on the islands of Japan to be drowned like rats when Americans bombed them!

Our men were uneasy. They sensed hostility and many spoke of returning to Manzanar. (To Be Continued)

D. Ransom Sherretz, C-C civil service personnel director until he was fired by the commission last week, notified the commission of his intent to appeal his discharge. But some question has arisen as to whether the personnel director has an appeal coming.

Act 319, which governs civil service practice in the Territory, sets up carefully the manner in which a director is hired, but it does not describe the means of his dismissal.

"He is hired by the commission," said one expert on such matters, "and it may be that he is fired at the pleasure of the commission without appeal. It may be that the legislature intended to put the office outside civil service."

The chief of police and the executive secretary of the liquor commission are, for instance, hired by commissions which are, themselves, appointed. If they had an appeal, it would be, not to the commission which hired them, but to the civil service commission which governs their respective! agencies. But an employe who is hired by the civil service commission would be appealing to the very body which fired him, and he could hardly expect such a hearing to be unprejudiced. No One Ever Got Job Back

Even though Sherretz should be granted an appeal and then be vindicated by the commission which fired him, he would still stand small chance of reinstatement if previous practice is followed. Mandatory reinstatement of vindicated employes has often been sought, and it was recommended by the 1949 holdover committee of the legislature by every witness who appeared. But to date, no employe has ever been reinstated to his job, no matter how clearly he was cleared of charges which caused his dismissal.

In any event, Mr. Sherretz' permanent successor will be determined by a three-man board, to be chosen by the commission, which will open all application envelopes and determine the merit of the applicants at one time. .

Thus far, no written applications have been filed, though four persons have made inquiry, the RECORD learned. The person who gets the job must have, among other things, a CAF-14 civil service rating.

Bay Salcedo and Antonio Lamadrid, operators of a shoe repair shop on Pauahi St., told the RECORD this week that their shop sent out the advertisement, published in a daily last Friday, which was "amazing" to Juan C. Dionicio, acting Philippines consul general here.

The advertisement, over the name, "Filamerican Citizens' League," advised naturalized Americans of Filipino extraction: "If you are a true American, do not make a mockery of your American citizenship by being active in the commemoration of Rizal Day."

The advertisement, in contradiction to the "Filamerican" signature, quoted Theodore Roosevelt as follows: "There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says that he is an American, but something else also, is. not an American at all."

Many Hit Back Since its publication, the advertisement has drawn strong criticism from a number of sources, notably Lt. Roland D. Sagum of the police department, who is chairman of a committee to prepare a celebration of Rizal Day, Dec. 30.

Lt. Sagum wrote: "Should the Chinese community be criticized ostracized or condemned because they observe Double Ten Day? The Italians, Garibaldi Day? The Irish, St. Patrick's Day?"

The argument of Mr. Lamadrid and Mr. Salcedo in the face of this kind of reasoning is that, in the past, unscrupulous persons have used Rizal Day as an excuse for promoting "rackets."Who are members of the Filamerican Citizens' League? Neither Lamadrid or Salcedo answers this question, but Lamadrid refers to "two fellows from Wahiawa." He said he had told Mr. Dionicio the names of those responsible for the advertisement.

But Mr. Dionicio told the RECORD that Lamadrid had mentioned only the name of Salcedo. It is believed Lamadrid may have referred to a photographer and a publicist.

Young People Laugh

"I was amazed when I saw the advertisement," Dionicio said, "and I wondered if it represented the thinking of second-generation Filipinos. I wondered what the young people thought about it."

As nearly as the consul general had been able to determine, the younger generation only laughed about the advertisement.

Others blasting the advertisement and the thinking behind it included Antonio Rania, president of ILWU Local 142; Ray Bartolome of the Fil-American Veterans and the Rev. E. C. "Yadao, president of the Filipino-American Citizens' Association, Inc.

The Rizal Day celebration is to be sponsored by at least 49 organizations, many of which include both people born in the Philippines and those born in America. It is planned as a simple literary and musical commemoration, Mr. Dionicio said, and will be held at the Princess Kawananakoa School the evening of Dec. 30.

Persons of the Filipino community are cooperating fully in preparations for the program, Mr. Dionicio said, and admission is free to! everyone.

When two sailors got into an argument with two local boys on Maunakea and Hotel Sts. last Saturday morning about 2 o'clock, young Francis Burke, 1454 Pele St., says he told his friends: "We'd better move on or we'll get in trouble."

Burke is the well-built youth of 19 who was involved in a fight with Officer Cabral some months ago and, as witnesses told the RECORD, got roughed up considerably after a number of other officers arrived to help Cabral out.

"I think they've been laying for me since then," says the young man. "I didn't have anything to do with the sailors."

Roughed By Cops Two witnesses present with him bear out Burke's story that an officer stepped up and arrested him. charging him with assaulting the suilors. When he protested, Burke says, other officers joined in and at least one hit him with a blackjack.

"There were about eight policemen," says one of the witnesses. So Saturday morning, Burke displayed two blackened eyes, lumps and cuts on his head and long abrasions on his back as a result of the affray. He does not know the officers' names, he says, "but I'd know every one of them if I saw them again."

And what happened to the boys who were really fighting with the sailors?

"I don't know," says Burke. "I guess they took off."

Burke was arraigned Tuesday charged with assault and battery and obscene language. His trial was set for January 11.

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Telephone calls, some of them anonymous, are often the sources of news stories, sometimes disclosures of public interest. More often, the anonymous ones are not.

But our Maui reporter, Eddie Ujimori got a call at his home last week which he hopes to have run down before the next issue of the paper goes to press.

The caller, a woman who refused to give her name, said lunches at the Puunene School cafeteria are being left uneaten by children because of the manner in which the carrots and cabbage are cooked. The caller didn't say exactly how she thought the cooking should be improved—whether the vegetables are undercooked or overcooked. But she did suggest that it's something the Parent-Teachers Association might well look into.

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Otto Graham, star quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, former grid ace at Northwestern University, is quoted in a recent Issue of the Saturday Evening Post as saying:: "The saddest day of my life will be when I have to stop playing football."

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Lihue, Kauai—A chicken hekka dinner on Nov. 19, prepared by the Grove Farm and Lihue units,

and the election of officers for 1952, brought to a formal close an active year for Local 21 of the ILWU Women's Auxiliary.

Frank Silva, ILWU business agent, was the chief speaker. He emphasized the necessity for a strong defense for Jack W. Hall, ILWU regional director indicted under the Smith Act, pointing out how the indictment was aimed at beheading the union movement in Hawaii.

Auxiliary Local 21 voted $100 for the defense of Mr. Hall and each of the local's units pledged itself to raise money during the coming year for the same purpose.

Officers for 1952 elected at the dinner were Mrs. Catalina Valdez, president, replacing Mrs. Mitsue Takamatsu; vice president, Mrs. Misa Shimizu replacing Mrs. Bella Ana; secretary, Mrs. Mitsue Takamatsu, replacing Mrs. Sue Kunimura; treasurer, Mrs. Hilda Valera, replacing Mrs. Misa Shimizu; marshal, Mrs. Mabel Alesna, replacing Mrs. Suzie Manipon; reporter, Mrs. Sue Kunimura, replacing Mrs. Bosie Gongob; trustees, Mmes. Jackie Villamil, Lei Niau and Millie Kunimura, replacing Hilda Valera, Natsue Shimigawa, Edith Villamil and Dorothy Morimoto; executive board member, Mrs. Mabel Alesna.

Koloa, Kauai—Members of Unit 4 of ILWU Women's Auxiliary, Local 21 felt rewarded for their efforts in helping send Mrs. Catalina Valdez as the local's representative to the San Francisco convention when Mrs. Valdez addressed them on Nov. 21.

Mrs. Valdez reported that although she was an Islander and had met only a very few of the delegates to the convention, she felt at home among them because they all were working as sisters for a common goal—advancement of the union movement. The feeling of sisterhood with the delegates, regardless of race or background, Mrs. Valdez said, was a wonderful experience.

Unit 4 officers for the coming year are: President, Mrs. Magdaline Serraon; vice president, Mrs. Sophie Lorac; secretary, Mrs. Sue Kunimura; treasurer, Mrs. Kimie Kageyama; marshal, Mrs. Mary Gonsalves; reporter, Mrs. Millie Kunimura; trustees, Mrs. Mitsue Takamatsu and Mrs. B. Bromeo.

Lihue, Kauai—Unit 5 of the ILWU Women's Auxiliary, Local 21, reports a successful year of organization, not only in Lihue proper but also at Kealia and Hanamaulu. An organizing committee has been set up.

Unit 5 contributed $25 to the Lanai pineapple strikers after a visit by the Lanai "bumming team" headed by Mr. Narito. Funds were raised through showing a benefit movie and sale of pork and Filipino cakes.

Officers for 1952 will be: Mrs. Misa Shimizu, president; Mrs. Hilda Valera, vice president; Mrs. Rosie Gongob, secretary; Mrs. Mildred Watanabe, treasurer; Mrs. Beatrice Bernal, marshal; Mmes. Suzie Manipon, Amelia Perreira and Judy Gongob, trustees. Mrs. Cleofe Blas is the outgoing president for the 1951 term.

Basic hourly pay for Hawaiian longshoremen in 1941 was 60 cents. Current pay rate is $1.61 per hour, which will be raised to $1.81 under the newly negotiated pay hike, not yet approved by the government.

Ex-servicemen are entitled to automatic pay raises granted by their employers while they are in military service.

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Hanapepe, Kauai — Mariano Dannog has, in his own way, dealt a strong blow against the old and established practice on plantations to segregate workers of different ancestries and pit them one against the other. He has shown that immigrant workers speaking different languages, can live and enjoy life as the best of neighbors.

The language barrier is one of the reasons given by various plantations for housing workers of different national origins in separate camps, and this, Mr. Dannog has neatly exposed as unwarranted.

When he came to Hawaii as a. sugar worker in 1916, practically 30 years before plantation workers organized themselves into a union that now unites people of various ancestries, he was assigned by McBryde Sugar Co. to live in. Camp Seven, Eleele, where ha still resides today.

Camp Seven was then a solidly Japanese camp and he was alone among Japanese, a rare arrangement in segregated workers' camps. He set himself to learning Japanese and even today his facility in the language is a source of astonishment and pride to his friends.

Today, Mr. Dannog finds little use for the Japanese language as Camp Seven, with over 100 adult male residents, has become solidly Filipino except for the Makishima family that conducts one of the two little stores in the village.

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By Marty Solow (Federated Press)

"Who's telling the truth?" the New York Daily Compass asks as it quotes the following statements:

From Gen. MacArthur's first report to the United Nations, July 25. 1950: "The character and disposition of the Republic of Korea Army indicated that it did not expect this sudden attack."

Prom Maj. Gen. Willoughby's recent article in Cosmopolitan Magazine: "There was a marked tendency ... to smear Gen. Mac-Arthur . . . after the alleged 'surprise' of the North Korean invasion on June 25. The entire South Korean army had been alerted for weeks and was in position along the 38th parallel."

Good question!

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Newspapers recently front-paged stories to the effect that the U. S. per capita income was at an all-time high. True, BUT reports made to the joint congressional economic committee revealed that there are 10.5 million families subsisting on incomes of $2,000 a year and less. That's about 40 million people.

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In Wailuku it is not an uncommon sight to see the fire engines speed by to the scene of a fire, to be followed later by the fire chief. The people who observe the fire station closely say that Chief Alex Oana is not around 9 out of 10 times when there is fire. It's Lt. Thomas Noda who is always there with the firemen, directing them as soon as they arrive at the place of the- fire.

A tourist not long ago had an interesting comment to make when he saw the fire engines dash by and was surprised to see the siren-blowing chief's car speeding by sometime later.

"On the Mainland the fire chief is generally ahead of the engines and the chief is on the spot to direct the fire fighting," he said.

In Wailuku, people are asking whether Chief Oana is actually on call 24 hours a day or has he worked out a program where his assistants pinch hit for him.

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One politician on Maui may run either on the Republican or Democratic ticket come next election, politicos say, and almost everyone who's in politics here doesn't have to guess that the man is former Circuit Court Judge Cable Wirtz. As soon as Wirtz stepped down from the judicial bench he was retained as a legal counselor for the A&B and HC&S companies.

Mr. Wirtz is regarded by liberal Democrats as one of the "surplus Republicans," a term which is getting to be popular in the Democratic Party. In his case, it is reported that the term describes Big Five connections.

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Seating arrangements at Saturday night's dinner in honor of Secretary of Interior Oscar L. Chapman at Queen's Surf were not so democratic. The affair was staged by prominent Democrats in the Territory as a farewell occasion for Mr. Chapman before his return to Washington. All seats were reserved, and it turned out that guests who bought tickets were supposed to sit at the tables of those who sold them the tickets. But it didn't work out that way, and people from Oahu wound up up sitting at tables unofficially intended for politicos from the outer islands.

One man, who also attended the Republican function for New York's Gov. Dewey, also at Queen's Surf, said the distribution of seats was on a first-come-first-served basis then.

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"Stealing pennies from a blind man" has always been a phrase to describe the lowest depths of human conscience—but we have residents who fill the bill and they're to be found right on Fort Street where friendly, soft-spoken George Lewai has his stand. We happened by his stand last Thursday when Mr. Lewai, who lost his sight as the result of a plantation accident years ago, had just discovered a penny dropped in his box where a nickel or a dime should have been.

"You wouldn't think there'd be anyone that cheap, would you?" George asked sadly.

As the RECORD reported a year ago, the number of persons who steal from George Lewai and other blind news vendors in Honolulu is shocking. It is shocking, for that matter, that there should even be one such case:

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Richard "Kinjie" Kimball, who runs the Halekulani Hotel, and who appeared a couple of weeks ago at a board of supervisors meeting to blast rent control, mentioned at that meeting that he is president of the Hawaii Hotel Association and that the organization has gone on record as opposing rent control. He also identified Roy C. Kelley, also present and landlords' keynoter at that particular meeting, as an officer of the association. But) since the meeting, he has revealed that the association did not authorize the appearance of either to spearhead the boisterous attack on rent control. Kimball said he and Kelley got together and decided they should lambast rent control at city hall, and no one else in the organization was consulted at all.

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Supervisor John M. Asing comes in for much of the blame for the booing Leslie Ladd of the rent control commission took from the rowdy landlords at that meeting. Instead of limiting discussion to the amendment them on the floor, Asing acting as chairman in the absence of Mayor Wilson, allowed Kelley and Kimball to use the occasion for bringing in all their objections to rent control of any sort. Do you suppose Asing would have remained equally immobile if a group of people used a public hearing on a subdivision to lambast the land monopoly of the Big Five?

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Joe Rose, according to talk here and there, has recovered from whatever illness caused him to take a vacation from KHON and will be back riding the airwaves— this time with KPOA. While ha was on KHON, plenty of articulate Big Island fans objected to his treatment of sports.

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It would be interesting tor know if Gov. Oren E. Long ever supported any Democratic candidate against Joe Farrington. Some who know the governor's affinity for the Farringtons say it dates back 30 years to a time when Long and Joe's father, Wallace Rider Farrington, had a common interest in gardening—especially as an educational activity.

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Christmas, with all its diversified and commercialized trimmings today, originated in a most humble manner many centuries ago, when in a stable at Bethlehem, Jesus was born in a manger, among the gentle beasts of burden.

The fact that the great religious teacher and advocate of social change was born in such humble surroundings has historical significance.

For it was after a long and tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with Mary riding a donkey led by Joseph, that Jesus' parents were turned away from lodging places in Bethlehem. The Jews were then persecuted by the exploiting and oppressive Romans of the imperial regime and their puppets, who were set up to control local areas. The Romans, like all subjugators, kept people divided and in fear, in order to keep them under control.

Mary and Joseph knocked on many doors, and some people were prejudiced against them and others were afraid to give them shelter because of the Romans. And Bethlehem was crowded with subject people coming there to report for a census the Romans had ordered.

The Roman empire then was far gone in the process of decay from rottenness within, and the poor and downtrodden looked for salvation. In Palestine, rumors spread time and again that a Redeemer was coming to succor the suffering people, and this rumor disturbed King Herod, an alien ruler despised by the restless people who aspired for a better life. Thus, in fear and uneasiness, Herod ordered the extermination of every Jewish boy under two, one of whom might become the leader who would threaten his privileged position.

To save their new-born Son, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt, then later settled in Nazareth. There Jesus grew to be a carpenter.

John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, was then trying to unite his people, awaken their consciences to the inherent strength they possessed in resisting Roman oppression. For this, John the Baptist was arrested, imprisoned and executed.

Jesus reacted to this by leaving His work bench and going to His people to carry on the religious teachings of His cousin. Protest against abuses and demand for social change at that tune found expression in religious teachings.

Thus Jesus told His followers that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." What would Wall Street have done to Him!

He drove the money changers from the temple and He exposed greed, corruption, exploitation of the poor. He talked against despotism and bigotry and His gentle voice stirred the minds of men.

And so the Romans and their lackeys crucified Him. They charged: "He stirreth up the people . . ." He was disloyal, blasphemous, "subversive" and seditious, they said, but history has shown that He was on the side of the masses. His crime was ardent and steadfast devotion to the people against vested and special interests and the privileged class.

And like the stoolpigeons of today, there were betrayers of the masses. For thirty pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot fingered Jesus and had Him crucified. And the misled and the selfish even spat on Jesus as He was led to His execution.

Jesus came at a time of great social upheaval. The old Roman empire was crumbling, a slave society where men and women and children were bought and sold and also captured from the enemy and enslaved. The official municipal class—the curiales—was groaning under the weight of heavy taxation which went to the privileged few. And the curiales who collected revenues resorted to graft and corrupt practices, just like those we find today. There was a moral degeneration like that preceding the French revolution.

While the French revolution ushered in capitalism, when decadent feudalism was unable to satisfy the needs of the people, the social upheaval of the old Roman empire of slavery gave way to medieval feudalism.

The political anarchy and economic misery of the Roman period made the poor look for a redeemer and a new religion. Paul, Jesus' disciple, did a magnificent job of spreading Christianity. This new religion appealed to the masses, for it had warmth and advocated human brotherhood, and in this respect was far advanced from the pagan religions dominant at that time.

Christianity clashed with emperor worship and the Roman state religion, and the spirit or independence among Christians caused violations of Roman laws.

Peter and Paul tried to assure the Roman authorities that the Christians recognized the divine origin of secular government but this did not stop the "blood-letting," and Nero made a pyre out of live Christian bodies to light the garden where the privileged feasted.

But the people wanted change and Christianity stirred religious thinking that helped to bring about the change and no torture or persecution devised by Rome could stop the people's movement.

Nero started his reign in A. D. 64. By A. D. 300, there were so many Christians that persecution was inaffective and Christianity defied Roman imperial rule. Emperor Galerius in A. D. 311 revoked the execution of 303 Christians and started an era of tolerance. Constantine, in A. D. 313, issued the historic Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity.

Looking back over a period of 1900-odd years, we find many parallels today to occurrences then. Social changes are going on and the privileged few use force and violence and propaganda, instill thought control and fear, all in the effort to protect their special interests as against the interests of the masses.

So at Christmastime, we wish freedom from exploitation for all colonial and semi-colonial people where wars of subjugation are going on. Imperialism must come to an end. Peace and goodwill must prevail among all people, producing not for Wall Street's profits or for British or French imperialism, but for the common food—and not for destruction.

All this depends upon the common people who have made vast strides over centuries of tune, so that on earth, there shall be peace and goodwill toward men.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

By Frank Marshall Davis

"Peace on Earth..."

We have come again to the Christmas season, that time of the year when ordinarily we talk loudly and constantly about "Peace on earth, goodwill to all men."

Where, this year, is peace? What has happened to goodwill?

Peace, in America, is a dirty and dangerous word. A few weeks ago, four American citizens went on trial in Washington, which says that it wants only peace, because they induced other Americans to sign a petition asking for peace. A Federal judge who had kept his sanity in this time of madness, turned them loose. But despite this setback, governmental opposition to peace continues.

Wanton Killing In The Season of Peace

Billions of dollars in American wealth are being spent for war goods and propaganda. Meanwhile the huge corporations swell their treasuries almost to bursting from profits on war contracts as the ordinary guy must not only stretch his pay check up to meet living essentials but must find added dollars to fork over in increased taxes—so that the huge corporations can be fed even fatter profits.

"Peace on earth—"

The casualty list in Korea expands day by day. Men die in Egypt in the clash with Britain. Malaya, Indo China and the other areas wanting to control their own destinies free of outside domination, find men and women losing their lives in the season of peace.

"Peace on earth—"

We have the know-how of the atom bomb, of bacteriological warfare and other methods for mass destruction of mankind. We can kill each other but we can't get along with one another. Our atomic scientists have brought us to the point where, if we cannot have peace on earth, we will hardly have a piece of earth left.

No Peace Without Goodwill

As for goodwill, how can the world have thai without peace. Or, for that matter, how, can we have peace without goodwill?

If there were goodwill in America, there would not be the ethnic and national discrimination and group antagonisms that characterize our national life. And we would have a better chance of winning support among the darker peoples of the world.

Speaking recently in Winston-Salem, N. C., Elmer W. Henderson, national director of the American Council on Human Bights, said:

"The world is being divided into two opposite camps: world communism, led by Russia, and world democracy, led by the United States. Then there is a vast mass of people outside of these two great aggregations who have not made up their minds to which camp they belong.

The Brown and Black-Skinned People Will Choose

"Many thoughtful people believe the balance of power is still in the hands of the undecided people who are in general the brown and black-skinned people of Southern Asia, the Pacific Islands, Asia Minor, Africa and India.

"They want to be free, but not necessarily to adopt communism or democracy if there is not real freedom under these ideologies. They are saying: 'If we accept the offer made us by America, we may find ourselves in the same situation as those Negro citizens in America who are constantly being segregated -and discriminated against in various ways.'" "—and goodwill to all."

Down in Opelousas, La., a Negro, John Lester Mitchell, was shot and killed two weeks ago Sunday by Deputy Sheriff David Lanclos of St. Landry Parish. The killing occurred, on the grounds of "justifiable homicide," just two weeks after Mitchell had filed suit against the registrar of voters of St. Landry Parish on the ground that he was not allowed to register because he was a Negro. No Discrimination Among People of Goodwill

• Four weeks ago, another Negro, Alvin Jones, died in a government hospital in New Orleans as the result of a beating administered one year earlier by two St. Landry deputies because he tried to register to vote. And yet the right to vote is theoretically accorded all citizens of this democracy. "—and goodwill to all."

There is no discrimination and jim crow among people of goodwill. Above all there should be no racism in an army which is supposed to be fighting for democracy. Yet the American Veterans Committee has just issued a statement charging the army with dilly-dallying in the matter of ending segregation of colored troops.

Yes, the world in general and our America in particular, could use quite a bit of "peace on earth and goodwill to all men."